LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 
SAN   DftGO 


WOMAN    AND 
THE  REPUBLIC 


A  SURVEY  OF  THE  WOMAN-SUFFRAGE 
MOVEMENT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
AND  A  DISCUSSION  OF  THE  CLAIMS 
AND  ARGUMENTS  OF  ITS  FOREMOST 
ADVOCATES  :::::::::  BY 
HELEN  KENDRICK  JOHNSON" 


NEW  YORK 
D.   APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 

M  DCCCXCVII 


COPYRIGHT,  1897, 
BY  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY 5 

CHAPTER  II. 
Is  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC  ? 10 

CHAPTER  III. 
WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC 39 

CHAPTER  IV. 
WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY 106 

CHAPTER  V. 
WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS 156 

CHAPTER  VI. 
WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES 186 

CHAPTER  VII. 
WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  PROFESSIONS 210 

CHAPTER  VIH. 
WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION 223 

CHAPTER  IX. 
WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.  .  .  246 


4  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. 

PACK 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX 278 

CHAPTER  XI. 
WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  HOME 802 

CHAPTER  XII. 
CONCLUSION.  .  .  820 


WOMAN   AND    THE    REPUBLIC. 


CHAPTEK  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

THE  introduction  to  the  "  History  of  Woman 
Suffrage,"  published  in  1881-85,  edited  by  Eliza- 
beth Cady  Stanton,  Susan  B.  Anthony  and  Ma- 
tilda Joslyn  Gage,  contains  the  following  state- 
ment :  "  It  is  often  asserted  that,  as  woman  has 
always  been  man's  slave,  subject,  inferior,  de- 
pendent, under  all  forms  of  government  and  re- 
ligion, slavery  must  be  her  normal  condition ;  but 
that  her  condition  is  abnormal  is  proved  by  the 
marvellous  change  in  her  character,  from  a  toy 
in  the  Turkish  harem,  or  a  drudge  in  the  Geramn 
fields,  to  a  leader  of  thought  in  the  literary  cir- 
cles of  France,  England,  and  America." 

I  have  made  this  quotation  partly  on  account 
of  its  direct  application  to  the  subject  to  be  dis- 
cussed, and  partly  to  illustrate  the  contradictions 
that  seem  to  inhere  in  the  arguments  on  which 
the  claim  to  "Woman  Suffrage  is  founded.  If 
woman  has  become  a  leader  of  thought  in  the 

literary  circles  of  the  most  cultivated  lands,  she 

o 


6  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

has  not  always  been  man's  slave,  subject,  inferior, 
dependent,  under  all  forms  of  government  and 
religion ;  and,  furthermore,  it  is  not  true  that 
there  has  been  such  a  marvellous  change  in  her 
character  as  is  implied  in  this  statement.  Where 
man  is  a  bigot  and  a  barbarian,  there,  alas! 
woman  is  still  a  harem  toy ;  where  man  is  little 
more  than  a  human  clod,  woman  is  to-day  a 
drudge  in  the  field ;  where  man  has  hewn  the 
way  to  governmental  and  religious  freedom,  there 
woman  has  become  a  leader  of  thought.  The 
unity  of  race  progress  is  strikingly  suggested  by 
this  fact.  The  method  through  which  that  unity 
is  maintained  should  unfold  itself  as  we  study 
the  story  of  the  sex  advancement  of  our  time.^ 

Progress  is  a  magic  word,  and  the  Suffrage 
party  has  been  fortunate  in  its  attempt  to  invoke 
the  sorcery  of  the  thought  that  it  enfolds,  and  to 
blend  it  with  the  claim  of  woman  to  share  in  the 
public  duty  of  voting.  Possession  of  the  elective 
franchise  is  a  symbol  of  power  in  man's  hand ; 
why  should  it  not  bear  the  same  relation  to 
woman's  upward  impulse  and  action?  Modern 
adherents  ask,  "  Is  not  the  next  new  force  at  hand 
in  our  social  evolution  to  come  from  the  en- 
trance of  woman  upon  the  political  arena  ? "  The 
roots  of  these  questions,  and  consequently  of 
their  answers,  lie  as  deep  as  the  roots  of  being, 
and  they  cannot  be  laid  bare  by  superficial  dig- 
ging. But  the  laying  bare  of  roots  is  not  the 
only  way,  or  even  the  best  way,  to  judge  of  the 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

strength  and  beauty  of  a  growth.  "We  look  at 
the  leaves,  the  flowers,  and  the  fruit.  "  Move- 
ment "  and  "  Progress "  are  not  synonymous 
terms.  In  evolution  there  is  degeneration  as  well 
as  regeneration.  Only  the  work  that  has  been 
in  accord  with  the  highest  ideals  of  woman's 
nature  is  fitted  to  the  environment  of  its  advance, 
and  thus  to  survival  and  development.  In  order 
to  learn  whether  Woman  Suffrage  is  in  the  line 
of  advance,  we  must  know  whether  the  move- 
ment to  obtain  it  has  thus  far  blended  itself  with 
those  that  have  proved  to  be  for  woman's  progress 
and  for  the  progress  of  government. 

I  am  sure  I  need  not  emphasize  the  fact  that, 
in  studying  some  of  the  principles  that  underlie 
the  Suffrage  movement,  I  am  not  impugning  the 
motives  of  the  leaders.  Nor  need  I  dwell  upon 
the  fact  that  it  is  from  the  good  comradeship  of 
men  and  women  that  has  come  to  prevail  under 
our  free  conditions,  that  some  women  have 
hastily  espoused  a  cause  with  which  they  never 
have  affiliated,  because  they  supposed  it  to  be 
fighting  against  odds  for  the  freedom  of  their  sex. 

The  past  fifty  years  have  wrought  more  change 
in  the  conditions  of  life  than  could  many  a 
Cathayan  cycle.  The  growth  of  religious  liberty, 
enlargement  of  foreign  and  home  missions,  the 
Temperance  movement,  the  giant  war  waged  for 
principle,  are  among  the  causes  of  this  change. 
The  settlement  of  the  great  West,  the  opening  of 
professions  and  trades  to  woman  consequent  upon 


8  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

the  loss  of  more  than  a  half  million  of  the  nation's 
most  stalwart  men,  the  mechanical  inventions 
that  have  changed  home  and  trade  conditions, 
the  sudden  advance  of  science,  the  expansion  of 
mind  and  of  work  that  are  fostered  by  the  play 
of  a  free  government, — all  these  have  tended  to 
place  man  and  woman,  but  especially  woman, 
where  something  like  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth  are  in  the  distant  vision. 

To  this  change  the  Suffragists  call  attention, 
and  say,  "  This  is,  in  great  part,  our  work."  In 
this  little  book  I  shall  recount  a  few  of  the  facts 
that,  in  my  opinion,  go  to  prove  that  the  Suffrage 
movement  has  had  but  little  part  or  lot  in  this 
matter.  And  because  of  these  facts  I  believe  the 
principles  on  which  the  claim  to  suffrage  is 
founded  are  those  that  turn  individuals  and 
nations  backward  and  not  forward. 

The  first  proof  I  shall  mention  is  the  latest 
one  in  time — it  is  the  fact  of  an  Anti-Suffrage 
movement.  In  the  political  field  alone  are  we 
being  formed  into  separate  camps  whose  watch- 
words become  more  unlike  as  they  become 
more  clearly  understood.  The  fact  that  for  the 
first  time  in  our  history  representatives  of  two 
great  organizations  of  women  are  appealing  to 
courts  and  legislatures,  each  begging  them  to 
refuse  the  prayer  of  the  other,  shows,  as  conclu- 
sively as  a  long  argument  could  do,  that  this 
matter  of  suffrage  is  something  essentially  dis- 
tinct from  the  great  series  of  movements  in  which 


INTRODUCTORY.  9 

women  thus  far  have  advanced  side  by  side.  It 
is  an  instinctive  announcement  of  a  belief  that 
the  demand  for  suffrage  is"  not  progress ;  that  it 
does  array  sex  against  sex;  that  woman,  like 
man,  can  advance  only  as  the  race  advances ; 
and  that  here  lies  the  dividing  line. 

How  absolute  is  that  dividing  line  between 
woman's  progress  and  woman  suffrage,  we  may 
realize  when  we  consider  what  the  result  would 
be  if  we  could  know  to-morrow,  beyond  a  perad- 
venture,  that  woman  never  would  vote  in  the 
United  States.  Not  one  of  her  charities,  great  or 
small,  would  be  crippled.  Not  a  woman's  college 
would  close  its  doors.  Not  a  profession  would 
withhold  its  diploma  from  her ;  not  a  trade  its 
recompense.  Not  a  single  just  law  would  be  re- 
pealed, or  a  bad  one  framed,  as  a  consequence.  Not 
a  good  book  would  be  forfeited.  Not  a  family 
would  be  less  secure  of  domestic  happiness.  Not 
a  single  hope  would  die  which  points  to  a  time 
when  our  cities  will  all  be  like  those  of  the  pro- 
phet's vision,  "  first  pure  and  then  peaceable." 

Among  the  forces  that  are  universally  con- 
sidered progressive  are :  the  democratic  idea  in 
government,  extinction  of  slavery,  increase  of 
educational  and  industrial  opportunities  for 
woman,  improvement  in  the  statute  laws,  and 
spread  of  religious  freedom.  The  "Woman-Suf- 
frage movement  professed  to  champion  these 
causes.  That  movement  is  now  nearly  fifty  years 
old,  and  has  made  a  record  by  which  its  relation 
to  them  can  be  judged.  What  is  the  verdict  ? 


CHAPTER  II. 

IS   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    DEMOCRATIC  ? 

As  the  claim  of  woman  to  share  the  voting 
power  is  related  to  the  fundamental  principles  of 
government,  the  progress  of  government  must 
be  studied  in  relation  to  that  claim  in  order 
to  learn  its  bearing  upon  them.  It  is  possible  to 
suggest  in  one  brief  chapter  only  the  barest  out- 
line of  such  a  far-reaching  scrutiny,  and  wiser 
heads  than  mine  must  search  to  conclusion  ;  but 
some  beginnings  looking  toward  an  answer  to 
the  inquiry  I  have  raised  have  occurred  to  me  as 
not  having  entered  into  the  newly-opened  con- 
troversy on  woman  suffrage. 

I  say,  the  newly-opened  controversy,  for, 
through  these  fifty  years,  the  Suffragists  have 
done  nearly  all  the  talking.  So  persistently  have 
they  laid  claim  to  being  in  the  line  of  progress 
for  woman,  that  many  of  their  newly  aroused 
opponents  fancied  that  the  anti-suffrage  view 
might  be  the  ultra  conservative  one,  and  that 
democratic  principles,  strictly  and  broadly  applied, 
might  at  last  lead  to  woman  suffrage,  though 
premature  if  pushed  to  a  conclusion  now. 
10 


18  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?          11 

The  first  step  in  finding  out  how  far  that  posi- 
tion is  true  is,  to  ascertain  what  the  Suffragists 
say  about  this  noblest  of  democracies,  our  own 
Government.  In  referring  to  the  "  The  History 
of  Woman  Suffrage "  for  the  opinions  of  the 
leaders,  I  am  not  only  using  a  book  that  on  its 
publication  was  considered  a  strong  and  full  pre- 
sentment of  their  arguments,  but  one  which  they 
are  to-day  advertising  and  selling  as  "  a  perfect 
arsenal  of  the  work  done  by  and  for  women  dur- 
ing the  last  half  century."  In  it  the  editors  say : 
"  Woman's  political  equality  with  man  is  the 
legitimate  outgrowth  of  the  fundamental  principles  , 
of  our  government."  Dr.  Mary  Putnam  Jacobi, 
writing  in  the  New  York  Sun  in  April,  1894, 
says  :  "  Never,  until  the  establishment  of  universal 
[male]  suffrage,  did  it  happen  that  all  the  women 
in  a  community,  no  matter  how  well  born,  how 
intelligent,  how  well  educated,  how  virtuous,  how 
wealthy,  were  counted  the  political  inferiors  of 
all  the  men,  no  matter  how  base  born,  how  stupid, 
how  ignorant,  how  brutal,  how  poverty-stricken. 
This  anomaly  is  the  real  innovation.  Men  have 
personally  ruled  the  women  of  their  families; 
the  law  has  annihilated  the  separate  existence  of 
women;  but  women  have  never  been  subjected 
to  the  political  sovereignty  of  all  men  simply  in 
virtue  of  their  sex.  Never,  that  is,  since  the  days 
of  the  ancient  republics."  Mrs.  Ellen  Battelle 
Dietrick,  who,  as  Secretary  of  the  New-England 
Suffrage  Association,  was  put  forward  to  meet  all 


12  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

comers,  writing  in  July,  1895,  said :  "  Shall  we, 
as  a  people,  be  true  to  our  principles  and  en- 
franchise woman  ?  or,  shall  we  drift  along  in  the 
meanest  form  of  oligarchy  known  among  men— 
an  oligarchy  which  exalts  every  sort  of  a  male 
into  a  ruler  simply  because  he  is  a  male,  and  de- 
bases every  woman  into  a  subject  simply  because 
she  is  a  woman  ? "  Mrs.  Fanny  B.  Ames,  speak- 
ing in  Boston  in  1896,  said :  "  I  believe  woman 
suffrage  to  be  the  final  result  of  the  evolution  of 
a  true  democracy."  Not  only  has  every  woman 
speaker  or  writer  in  favor  of  suffrage  presented 
this  idea  in  some  form,  but  the  men  also  who 
have  taken  that  side  have  done  likewise.  One 
among  those  who  advocated  the  cause  before  the 
Committee  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
New  York,  said:  "Woman  Suffrage  is  the  in- 
evitable result  of  the  logic  of  the  situation  of 
modern  society.  The  despot  who  first  yielded 
an  inch  of  power  gave  up  the  field.  We  are 
standing  in  the  light  of  the  best  interests  of  the 
State  of  New  York  when  we  stand  in  the  way 
of  this  forward  movement." 

All  these  writers  charge  the  American  Kepub- 
lic  with  being  false  to  democratic  principles  in 
excluding  women  from  the  franchise,  while  but 
one  of  them  alludes  to  the  fact  that  in  the  ancient 
republics  the  same  "  anomaly  "  was  seen. 

As  I  read  political  history,  the  facts  go  to  show 
that  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  Govern- 
ment are  more  opposed  to  the  exercise  of  suffrage 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC f         13 

by  women  than  are  those  of  monarchies.  To  me  it 
seems  that  both  despotism  and  anarchy  are  more 
friendly  to  woman's  political  aspirations  than  is 
any  form  of  constitutional  government,  and  that 
manhood  suffrage,  and  not  womanhood  suffrage, 
is  the  final  result  of  the  evolution  of  democracy. 

The  Suffragists  repeatedly  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  in  the  early  ages  in  Egypt,  in  Greece, 
and  in  Rome,  women  were  of  much  greater  polit- 
ical consequence  than  later  during  the  republics; 
but  the  moral  they  have  drawn  has  been  that  of 
the  superiority  of  the  ancient  times.  Mrs.  Diet- 
rick  says :  "  The  ideal  woman  of  Greece  was 
Athena,  patroness  of  all  household  arts  and  indus- 
tries, but  equally  patroness  of  all  political  inter- 
ests. The  greatest  city  of  Greece  was  believed  to 
have  been  founded  by  her,  and  Greek  history 
recorded  that,  though  the  men  citizens  voted 
solidly  to  have  the  city  named  for  Neptune,  yet 
the  women  citizens  voted  solidly  for  Athena,  beat 
them  by  one  vote,  and  carried  that  political  mat- 
ter. If  physical  force  had  been  a  governing 
power  in  Greece,  and  men  its  manifestation,  how 
could  such  a  story  have  been  published  by  Greek 
men  down  to  the  second  century  before  our  era  ? " 

Mrs.  Dietrick's  remarkably  realistic  version  of 
the  old  myth  does  not  tell  the  tale  as  Greek  men 
published  it.  Yarro,  who  was  educated  at  Ath- 
ens, goes  on  to  say :  "  Thereupon,  Neptune  be- 
came enraged,  and  immediately  the  sea  flowed 
over  all  the  land  of  Athens.  To  appease  the  god, 


14  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

the  burgesses  were  compelled  to  impose  a  three- 
fold punishment  uppn  their  wives — they  were  to 
lose  their  votes ;  the  children  were  to  receive  no 
more  the  mother's  name ;  and  they  themselves 
were  no  longer  to  be  called  Athenians,  after  the 
goddess."  It  seems  to  me  this  fable  teaches  that 
physical  force  was  indeed  the  governing  power  in 
Athens  at  that  day,  and  that  men  were  its  mani- 
festation. 

The  legend  is  generally  taken  to  indicate  the 
time  when  the  Greek  gens  progressed  to  the  fam- 
ily. In  the  ruder  time,  the  legitimacy  of  the 
chieftain  might  be  traced,  because  the  mother, 
though  not  always  the  father,  could  be  known  with 
certainty.  When  the  father  became  the  acknowl- 
edged head  of  the  household,  a  distinct  advance 
was  made  toward  that  heroic  age  in  which  the 
vague  but  towering  figures  of  men  and  women 
move  across  the  stage.  Goddesses,  queens,  prin- 
cesses, are  powerful  in  love  and  war.  Sibyls  un- 
fold the  meaning  of  the  book  of  fate.  Vestals 
feed  the  fires  upon  the  highest  and  lowest 
altars.  Later,  throughout  most  of  the  states  of 
Greece,  something  like  the  following  order  of 
political  life  is  seen:  from  kings  to  oligarchs, 
from  oligarchs  to  tyrants  or  despots,  from  them 
to  some  form  of  restricted  constitutional  liberty. 
In  Sparta,  all  change  of  government  was  con- 
trolled by  the  machinery  of  war,  and  the  soldiers 
were  made  forever  free.  Athens,  separated  from 
the  rest  of  Greece,  was  less  agitated  by  outward 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?         15 

conflict.  In  government  she  passed  from  king  to 
archon ;  from  hereditary  archon  to  archons  chosen 
for  ten  years,  but  always  from  one  family,  then 
to  those  elected  for  one  year,  nine  being  chosen. 
At  the  time  of  the  Areopagus  there  were  four 
classes  of  citizens.  The  first  three  paid  taxes,  had 
a  right  to  share  in  the  government,  and  formed 
the  defence  of  the  state.  If  women  were  of  polit- 
ical importance  in  earlier  times,  and  if  a  repub- 
lic is  more  favorable  to  the  exercise  by  them  of 
the  elective  franchise,  we  should  expect  to  find 
women  reaching  their  highest  power  under  the 
Areopagus.  Exactly  the  contrary  appears  to  be 
true.  Native  and  honorable  Greek  women  retired 
to  domestic  life  as  the  liberty  of  their  people 
grew.  Grote,  in  his  "  History  of  Greece,"  refer- 
ring to  the  legendary  period,  says  :  "  We  find  the 
wife  occupying  a  station  of  great  dignity  and 
influence,  though  it  was  the  practice  of  the  hus- 
band to  purchase  her  by  valuable  presents  to  her 
parents.  She  even  seems  to  live  less  secluded, 
and  to  enjoy  a  wider  sphere  of  action,  than  was 
allotted  to  her  in  historic  Greece." 

Lecky,  in  his  "European  Morals,"  says:  "It 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and,  to  some  writ- 
ers, one  of  the  most  perplexing  facts  in  the  moral 
history  of  Greece,  that  in  the  former  and  ruder 
period  women  had  undoubtedly  the  highest  place, 
and  their  type  exhibited  the  highest  perfection." 
What  the  "  highest  perfection "  is,  for  her  type, 
or  for  man's  type,  is  not  here  under  discussion  ; 


16  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

but  it  is  not  out  of  place  to  say  in  passing  that  if 
the  final  conquest  of  the  spiritual  over  the  mate- 
rial forces  of  humanity  is  really  the  aim  of  civil- 
ization, these  "  facts  in  the  moral  history  of 
Greece  "  become  less  "  perplexing." 

The  heroines  of  Homer's  tales  were  all  of  noble 
birth — they  were  goddesses,  princesses,  hereditary 
gentlewomen.  In  early  historic  times,  also,  it 
was  only  royal  or  gentle  blood  that  secured  for 
woman  political  power.  Athena  was,  in  gentle 
Athens,  patroness  of  household  arts ;  but  in 
Sparta,  as  Minerva,  the  same  divinity  was  god- 
dess, not  of  political  interests,  as  Mrs.  Dietrick 
puts  it,  but  of  war.  She  sprang  full-armed  from 
the  head  of  Jove — rather  a  masculine  origin,  it 
must  be  owned.  In  Sparta  women  became 
soldiers  as  the  democratic  idea  advanced.  Prin- 
cess Archidamia,  marching  at  the  head  of  her 
female  troop  to  rebuke  the  senators  for  the  decree 
that  the  women  and  children  be  removed  from 
the  city  before  the  anticipated  attack  could  come, 
is  an  example.  In  Etolia,  in  Argos,  and  in  other 
states,  the  same  was  true.  Maria  and  Telesilla 
led  the  women  in  battle  and  disciplined  them  in 
peace.  But  the  world  does  not  turn  to  Sparta 
for  its  ideal  of  a  pre-Christian  republic,  and  the 
Suffragists  of  our  day  do  not  propose  to  emulate 
the  Spartan  Amazon  and  hew  their  way  to  polit- 
ical power  with  the  sword. 

In  Athens,  which  does  present  the  model,  mat- 
ters were  far  otherwise.  In  the  year  700  B.  C., 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?         17 

the  Spartans  called  upon  Athens  for  a  com- 
mander to  lead  them  to  the  second  Messenian 
war,  and  the  Athenians  sent  them  Tyrtaeus,  their 
martial  poet.  The  Spartans  were  displeased  at 
his  youth  and  gentle  bearing;  but  when  the 
battle  was  joined,  his  chanting  of  his  own  war- 
songs  so  animated  the  troops  that  they  won 
against  heavy  odds.  The  following  is  a  fragment 
translated  from  one  of  his  lyrics : 

"  But  be  it  ours  to  guard  the  hallowed  spot, 

To  shield  the  tender  offspring  and  the  wife  ; 
Here  steadily  await  our  destined  lot, 
And,  for  their  sakes,  resign  the  gift  of  life." 

^Eschylus,  poet  and  soldier,  writing  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  later,  in  his  "  Seven  Against 
Thebes,"  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  chieftain 
Eteocles  this  address  to  the  women  : 

"  It  is  not  to  be  borne,  ye  wayward  race  ; 
Is  this  your  best,  is  this  the  aid  you  lend 
The  state,  the  fortitude  with  which  you  steel 
The  souls  of  the  besieged,  thus  falling  down 
Before  the  images  to  wail,  and  shriek 
With  lamentations  loud  ?    Wisdom  abhors  you. 
Nor  in  misfortune,  nor  in  dear  success, 
Be  woman  my  associate.    If  her  power 
Bears  sway,  her  insolence  exceeds  all  bounds  ; 
But  if  she  fears,  woe  to  that  house  and  city. 
And  now  by  holding  counsel  with  weak  fear, 
You  magnify  the  foe,  and  turn  our  men 
To  flight.     Thus  are  we  ruined  by  ourselves. 
This  ever  will  arise  from  suffering  women 
To  intermix  with  men.     But  mark  me  well, 
Whoe'er  henceforth  dares  disobey  my  orders — 
2 


18  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Be  it  man  or  woman,  old  or  young — 

Vengeance  shall  burst  upon  him,  the  decree 

Stands  irreversible,  and  lie  shall  die. 

War  is  no  female  province,  but  the  scene 

For  men.     Hence,  home  !  nor  spread  your  mischiefs  here. 

Hear  you,  or  not  ?    Or  speak  I  to  the  deaf  ?  " 

Pericles,  in  his  famous  funeral  oration  over 
those  who  fell  in  the  Peloponnesian  war,  thus 
addresses  the  Athenian  women :  "  To  the  wives 
who  will  henceforth  live  in  widowhood,  I  will 
speak,  in  one  short  sentence  only,  of  womanly 
virtue.  She  is  the  best  woman  who  is  most  truly 
a  woman,  and  her  reputation  is  the  highest  whose 
name  is  never  in  the  mouths  of  men  for  good  or 
for  evil." 

Seclusion  was  the  best  thing  that  the  most  in- 
tellectual pre-Christian  republic  could  give  to  its 
honorable  women.  The  freedom  with  which  the 
hetaira3,  who  were  foreigners  or  daughters  of 
slaves,  mingled  with  statesmen  and  philosophers, 
brought  them  open  political  influence,  but  not  a 
hint  of  voting  power  or  of  office-holding. 

For  the  sake  of  brevity,  I  will  confine  my  refer- 
ence to  Roman  custom  to  a  single  pregnant  sen- 
tence from  Gibbon's  "  Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
Empire."  He  says  :  "  In  every  age  and  country 
the  wiser,  or  at  least  the  stronger  of  the  two  sexes, 
has  usurped  the  powers  of  the  state,  and  confined 
the  other  to  the  cares  and  pleasures  of  domestic 
life.  In  hereditary  monarchies,  however,  and 
especially  in  those  of  modern  Europe,  the  gallant 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?         19 

spirit  of  chivalry,  and  the  law  of  succession,  have 
accustomed  us  to  allow  a  singular  exception,  and 
a  woman  is  often  acknowledged  the  absolute 
sovereign  of  a  great  kingdom,  in  which  she  would 
be  deemed  incapable  of  exercising  the  smallest 
employment,  civil  or  military.  But,  as  the  Koman 
Emperors  were  still  considered  as  the  generals 
and  magistrates  of  the  Republic,  their  wives  and 
mothers,  although  dignified  by  the  name  of 
Augusta,  were  never  associated  to  their  personal 
honors ;  and  a  female  reign  would  have  appeared 
an  inexplicable  prodigy  in  the  eyes  of  those  primi- 
tive Romans,  who  married  without  love,  or  loved 
without  delicacy  or  respect." 

The  warlike  states  named  republics  in  the 
Middle  Ages  had  no  woman  Doge,  or  Duke,  al- 
though women  rose  to  the  semblance  of  political 
power  with  empires  and  kingdoms,  in  Italy  and 
Spain  as  well  as  in  Germany  and  France,  Austria 
and  Russia. 

Let  us  turn  to  modern  Europe,  in  which  thrones 
have  been  occupied  now  and  again  by  queens. 
The  progress  of  woman  here,  especially  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  countries,  has  been  steady,  true  and  in- 
spiring. In  the  earliest  recorded  councils  of  the 
race  from  which  we  sprang,  we  see  freemen  in 
full  armor  casting  equal  votes.  During  the  ages 
of  feudalism,  women  who  were  land-owners  had 
the  same  rights  as  other  nobles.  They  could 
raise  soldiery,  coin  money,  and  administer  justice 
in  both  civil  and  criminal  proceedings.  In  pro- 


20  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

portion  as  the  aristocratic  power  lost  its  hold, 
women  were  exempted  from  these  services  and 
gained  in  moral  influence.  The  Germanic  races 
were  renowned  for  their  respect  for  woman,  and 
their  love  for  home.  As  constitutional  liberty 
grew,  and  each  Englishman's  house  became  his 
castle  for  defence  against  arbitrary  power,  the 
protection  was  not  for  himself  but  for  his  family. 
A  figure-head  ruler  in  feminine  attire  sits  on 
England's  throne  to-day — the  England  that  still 
unites  its  church  and  state,  and  in  which  feudal 
customs  still  prevail  to  some  extent.  Widows 
and  spinsters  who  are  property-owners  can  vote 
for  all  offices  except  the  one  charged  under  the 
Constitution  with  the  framing  and  execution  of 
the  laws  of  the  land.  Aristocracy  decrees  that 
in  the  House  of  Lords  the  Bishops  shalL  have  a 
voice ;  but  in  the  House  of  Commons  no  clergy- 
man can  hold  a  seat,  and  for  members  of  Parlia- 
ment no  woman  votes.  Would  any  Suffragist 
hold  that  a  clergyman  was  the  inferior  of  men 
who  do  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons?  They 
are  excluded  for  the  same  reason  that  woman  has 
not  the  parliamentary  vote — they  are  looked  upon 
as  non-combatants. 

The  Greek  and  Roman  republics  appear  to  have 
followed  an  instinct  that  was  unerring  in  the 
condition  of  society  when  they  removed  women 
from  the  seats  of  power  as  the  commonwealth 
gathered  strength.  Gibbon,  in  the  sentences 
quoted,  attributes  the  fact  that  queens  as  well  as 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?         21 

kings  have  occupied  the  thrones  of  modern  Europe 
to  the  chivalry  of  men  toward  those  who  would 
yet  be  incapable  of  exercising  actual  power  except 
for  the  backing  of  a  standing  army,  or  an  hered- 
itary nobility  sworn  to  their  support,  both  of 
which  are  composed  solely  of  men.  If  this  be 
true,  it  should  be  visible  in  the  workings  of  the  con- 
stitutional restrictions  upon  monarchies  that  have 
developed  in  the  past  fifty  years,  during  which  the 
principle  of  democratic  government  has  advanced 
with  enormous  strides  over  a  great  portion  of  the 
globe. 

In  the  Austro-Hungarian  monarchy  there  is 
restricted  woman  suffrage.  The  kingdom  of 
Italy  has  restricted  municipal  woman  suffrage. 
The  little  republic  that  separates  those  countries, 
the  land  of  Tell  and  the  Yaudois,  has  direct  man- 
hood suffrage  only. 

Sweden  and  Norway  are  apparently  parting 
company.  Sweden  chooses  to  keep  its  king  and 
its  aristocracy,  and  it  has  restricted  woman  suf- 
frage; but  Norway,  which  is  working  toward 
free  institutions,  and  last  year  voted  to  remove 
the  insignia  of  union  from  the  Norwegian  flag, 
has  no  woman  suffrage.* 

*  In  the  city  of  Berne,  Switzerland,  in  1852,  a  proxy  vote 
was  given  to  independent  women  who  paid  a  commercial 
tax,  but  they  made  no  effort  to  use  it  until  1885,  when  con- 
tending political  factions  compelled  them  to  do  so  in  a 
measure.  Norway's  women  have  a  local  school  vote.  Both 
these  cases  of  exception  serve  to  prove  the  rule  that  I  am 
trying  to  set  forth. 


22  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Autocratic  Russia  and  its  Asiatic  colonies  have 
more  woman  suffrage  than  England.  Finland,  a 
constitutional  monarchy,  was  ceded  to  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia  in  1809.  Women  there  have  all  ex- 
cept the  parliamentary  suffrage.  The  Governor- 
General  of  the  Senate  is  nominated  by  the  Emperor, 
and  is  chief  of  the  military  force.  The  National 
Assembly  is  convoked  by  the  Emperor  whenever 
he  sees  fit.  The  duties  of  that  Assembly  are  to 
consider  laws  proposed  by  the  Emperor  and 
elaborated  by  the  Committee  of  Affairs  and  four 
members  nominated  by  the  Emperor,  who  sit  in 
St.  Petersburg.  The  Emperor  has  the  veto  power 
over  any  act  of  theirs.  That  National  Assembly 
consists  of  representatives  of  the  nobility,  the 
clergy,  the  burghers,  and  the  peasantry,  the  con- 
sent of  all  of  whom  must  be  obtained  to  any 
measure  that  makes  a  change  in  the  constitution 
or  imposes  taxes.  But  the  royal  veto  can  set 
aside  any  decision. 

Iceland,  a  dependency  of  Denmark,  has  muni- 
cipal woman  suffrage,  and  women  are  eligible  to 
municipal  office.  It  has  its  own  legislature,  which 
governs  jointly  with  the  King,  the  executive 
poAver  being  in  the  hands  of  the  King  alone. 

In  the  great  extensions  of  suffrage  in  England 
in  1848,  an  amendment  for  the  extension  of  suf- 
frage to  women  was  introduced  in  Parliament  by 
Mr.  Disraeli.  Lord  Northcote,  Lord  John  Man- 
ners, and  other  conservatives,  upheld  it ;  but  the 
liberal  leaders  opposed  it,  Gladstone  and  John 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?         23 

Bright  among  them.  John  Bright's  family 
were  strenuous  for  the  movement,  and  he  had 
fancied  himself  its  friend  until  the  issue  came ; 
then  the  old  champion  of  freedom  proved  true  to 
the  instinct  that  guards  it  in  the  nation.  In  the 
constantly  increasing  liberty  of  the  lower  classes 
of  England,  an  essential  principle  which  excludes 
women  from  the  parliamentary  vote  has  been 
maintained.  Lady  Spencer  Churchill  and  other 
Suffrage  leaders  look  to  Yiscount  Templeton  and 
Lord  Salisbury  for  support  to-day. 

A  woman-suffrage  bill  of  many  years'  standing 
and  absurd  provisions,  has  just  passed  to  a  second 
reading  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Although  it 
was  treated  as  a  joke  by  all  parties,  it  served  to 
emphasize  the  fact  that  Sir  Yernon  Harcourt  and 
the  Liberals  are  opposed  to  any  advance  in  this 
direction. 

In  the  late  extension  of  suffrage  in  Canada,  the 
movement  for  woman  suffrage  had  conservative 
support,  while  every  liberal  leader  opposed  it. 
~No  South  American  Eepublic  has  woman  suffrage. 
"With  the  deposition  of  Liliuokalani,  woman's  direct 
political  power  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands  died.  In 
France  only  the  Anarchists  "  admit  women " 
to  public  council,  and  that  party  in  Germany  has 
here  and  there  inscribed  woman  suffrage  upon  its 
banners. 

Not  only  England,  Scotland  and  Wales,  but 
Canada,  definitely  excepts  the  vote  for  members 
of  parliament  in  giving  suffrage  to  woman,  and 


24  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

only  widows  and  spinsters  are  admitted  to  the 
minor  forms  of  franchise.  As  to  the  other  British 
colonies,  what  is  the  situation  ?  Much  stress  has 
been  laid  on  what  has  been  termed  the  progress 
of  the  Suffrage  movement  in  Australasia. 
There  is  but  one  Australian  colony  in  which  the 
legislative  assembly  is  elected  ;  in  the  others  it  is 
appointed  for  life,  or  for  short  terms.  "Where  it 
is  thus  appointed,  women  vote  on  various  matters. 
In  Yictoria,  which  contains  the  capital  city,  Mel- 
bourne, and  which  is  the  most  progressive  and 
democratic  colony  in  Australia,  the  Legislative 
Assembly  is  elected,  and  that  body  is  chosen  by 
unrestricted  male  suffrage  only,  while,  as  with 
the  House  of  Commons  in  the  mother  country, 
clergymen  are  not  allowed  to  sit  in  it.  In  West 
Australia,  the  newest  colony,  the  voting  is  done 
by  men  alone.  In  Cape  Colony  women  have  re- 
stricted municipal  suffrage  ;  but  the  Assembly  is 
elected  by  the  vote  of  men  who  own  a  certain 
amount  of  property. 

In  the  Orange  Free  State  every  adult  white 
male  is  a  full  burgher,  having  a  vote  for  the  Pres- 
ident, who  is  chosen  for  five  years.  The  Trans- 
vaal Republic  has  no  woman  suffrage  amid  its 
hand-to-hand  struggles. 

To  comprehend  the  condition  of  European  gov- 
ernmental affairs,  one  must  follow  the  condition 
of  things  produced  by  the  struggle  of  socialistic 
and  anarchistic  elements.  Between  the  King  on 
the  one  hand,  and  these  forces  on  the  other,  the 


IS   WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?         25 

true  Liberal  parties  are  slowly  progressing  toward 
free  institutions ;  both  aristocratic  and  anarchistic 
movements  being  more  favorable  than  liberalism  to 
woman-suffrage  aspirations. 

The  countries  where  woman  has  full  suffrage 
(save  in  the  United  States)  are  all  dependencies  of 
royalty.  They  are  :  The  Isle  of  Man,  Pitcairn's 
Island,  New  Zealand,  and  South  Australia.  The 
most  important  of  these,  New  Zealand,  was  once 
a  promising  colony,  but  it  has  been  declining  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  men  outnumber  the 
women  by  forty  thousand.  The  act  conferring 
the  parliamentary  franchise  on  both  European  and 
Maori  women  received  the  royal  sanction  in  1892. 
At  the  session  of  Parliament  that  passed  the  act 
a  tax  was  put  upon  incomes  and  one  upon  land, 
so  that  a  desperate  civilization  seemed  to  be  trying 
all  the  experiments  at  once.  Certainly,  woman 
suffrage  in  New  Zealand  was  not  adopted  because 
the  Government  was  so  stable,  so  strong,  so  demo- 
cratic, that  these  conditions  must  thus  find  fit  ex- 
pression.* 

South  Australia  not  only  gives  women  full  suf- 
frage, but  makes  them  eligible  to  a  seat  in  Parlia- 
ment. The  colony  is  a  vast,  mountainous,  largely 
unsettled  region,  with  a  high  proportion  of  native 


*  The  Australasian  colonies  are  taking  steps  toward  the 
formation  of  a  Federal  Union.  While  this  book  is  in  press 
news  comes  that  the  Federal  Convention,  by  a  vote  of  23  to  12, 
has  refused  to  allow  women  to  vote  for  members  of  the  House 
of  Representatives. 


26  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

and  Chinese,  and,  in  1894,  had  but  73,000  voters, 
including  the  women.  The  Socialistic  Labor 
movement,  which  has  played  a  large  part  in 
Australasian  politics,  here  succeeded  in  dominat- 
ing the  government.  There  was  an  attempt  to 
establish  communistic  villages  with  public  money, 
a  proposal  to  divide  the  public  money  pro  rata, 
and  one  to  build  up  a  system  of  state  life-insur- 
ance ;  and  taxes  were  to  be  levied  on  salaries,  and 
on  all  incomes  above  a  certain  point.  It  was 
found  that  the  sixty  thousand  women  who  were 
authorized  to  vote  throughout  Australia  assisted 
the  socialistic  schemes  that  are  hindering  progress 
and  that  tend  to  anarchy  and  not  to  republican- 
ism. There  is  a  royal  Governor,  and  suffrage  is 
based  on  household  and  property  qualifications. 
It  is  an  aristocratic  and  social  combination,  not  a 
triumph  of  democratic  ideas  or  principles.  Dr. 
Jacobi,  in  her  "  Common  Sense  applied  to  Woman 
Suffrage,"  says :  "  The  refusal  to  extend  parlia- 
mentary suffrage  to  women  who  are  possessed  of 
municipal  suffrage,  does  not  mean,  as  Americans 
are  apt  to  suppose,  that  women  are  counted  able 
to  judge  about  the  small  concerns  of  a  town,  but 
not  about  imperial  issues.  It  means  that  women 
are  still  not  counted  able  to  exercise  independent 
judgment  at  all,  and,  therefore,  are  to  remain 
counted  out  when  this  is  called  for ;  but  that  the 
property  to  which,  they  happen  to  belong,  and 
which  requires  representation,  must  not  be  de- 
prived of  this  on  account  of  an  entangling  female 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?         27 

alliance.  This  is  the  very  antipodes  of  the  demo- 
cratic doctrine,  perhaps  also  somewhat  excessive, 
that  a  man  requires  representation  so  much  that 
he  must  not  be  deprived  of  it  on  account  of  the 
accident  of  not  being  able  to  read  or  write  ! " 

With  Dr.  Jacobi's  interpretation,  I  will  deal 
later.  "What  I  wish  now  to  do  is,  to  call  attention 
to  her  admission  of  the  fact  that  woman  suffrage 
in  England  and  in  her  colonies  is  not  democratic, 
and  to  connect  it  with  the  other  fact  that  no  re- 
public, from  that  of  Greece  to  our  own,  has  intro- 
duced it,  although  manhood  suffrage  has  been 
universal  in  Switzerland  for  many  years,  and  in 
France  since  1848. 

So  it  would  seem  that  under  a  monarchical 
system,  with  a  standing  army  and  a  hereditary 
nobility  to  support  the  throne,  the  royal  mandate 
could  be  issued  by  a  woman.  Any  Queen,  as 
well  as  the  one  that  Alice  met  in  "Wonderland, 
could  say,  "  Off  with  his  head  ! "  But  when  free- 
dom grew,  and  the  democratic  idea  began  to  pre- 
vail, and  each  individual  man  became  a  king,  and 
each  home  a  castle,  the  law  given  by  God  and  not 
by  man  came  into  exercise,  and  upon  each  man 
was  laid  the  duty  of  defending  liberty  and  those 
who  were  physically  unfitted  to  defend  them- 
selves. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  our  own  country.  Tech- 
nically, at  least,  women  possessed  the  suffrage 
in  our  first  settlements.  In  New  England,  in 
the  early  days,  when  church-membership  as  the 


28  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

basis  of  the  franchise  excluded  three-fourths  of 
the  male  inhabitants  from  its  exercise,  women 
could  vote.  Under  the  old  Provincial  charters, 
from  1691  to  1780,  they  could  vote  for  all  elective 
offices.  From  1780  to  1785,  under  the  Articles 
of  Confederation,  they  could  vote  for  all  elective 
offices  except  the  Governor,  the  Council,  and  the 
Legislature.  The  comment  made  upon  this  by 
the  Suffrage  writers  is,  that  "  the  fact  that  woman 
exercised  the  right  of  suffrage  amid  so  many 
restrictions,  is  very  significant  of  the  belief  in  her 
right  to  the  ballot-box."  My  comment  is,  that 
the  same  lesson  we  have  learned  in  Europe  is 
repeated  here  with  wonderful  emphasis.  Under 
the  transported  aristocracy  of  churchly  power  in 
the  state,  they  shared  the  undemocratic  rule. 
When  freedom  broadened  a  little,  and,  under  a 
system  that  still  acknowledged  allegiance  to  the 
British  Crown,  all  property-holders  or  other  "  duly 
qualified  "  colonists  could  vote,  they  still  had  the 
voice  that  England  grants  to-day,  the  voice  of  an 
estate.  "When  liberty  took  another  step  and  a 
league  was  formed  of  "  firm  friendship  "  in  which 
each  Colony  was  to  be  independent  and  yet 
banded  for  offensive  and  defensive  aid,  the  women 
were  retired  from  the  special  vote  on  the  result  of 
which  lay  the  actual  execution  of  the  law.  But 
this  country  was  not  yet  a  republic,  or  even  a 
nation.  Washington  himself  said  that  the  state 
of  things  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation 
was  hardly  removed  from  anarchy.  In  1789  a 


18  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?        29 

constitution  was  adopted,  which  made  the  Amer- 
ican people  a  nation.  Its  preamble  read :  "  We, 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form 
a  more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  insure 
domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common 
defence,  promote-  the  general  welfare,  and  secure 
the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  pos- 
terity, do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution 
for  the  United  States  of  America."  Under  this 
Constitution  the  last  vestiges  of  churchly  political 
rule,  and  of  property-qualification  for  voting,  have 
gradually  disappeared.  New  Jersey  was  the  last 
State  to  repeal  her  property-qualification  laws. 
In  1709  she  made  "  male  freeholders  "  who  held  a 
certain  amount  of  property  the  only  voters.  In 
1790  her  Constitution,  through  an  error  in  word- 
ing, admitted  "  all  inhabitants "  with  certain 
property  to  vote.  This  was  in  force  until  1807, 
when  an  act  was  passed  conferring  the  suffrage 
upon  "  free  white  male  citizens  twenty-one  years 
of  age  worth  fifty  pounds  proclamation  money, 
clear  estate,"  etc.  From  1790  to  1807  a  good 
many  women,  generally  from  the  Society  of 
Friends,  took  part  in  elections.  After  1807  they 
attempted  to  do  so,  as  owners  of  property.  Fi- 
nally, that  qualification  for  the  male  voter  was 
done  away  with,  and  Avith  it  the  woman-suffrage 
agitation  disappeared. 

State  after  State,  in  carrying  out  the  compact 
of  the  Federal  Republic,  had  inserted  the  word 
"  male  "  into  the  Constitutions  that  embodied  the 


30  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

American  conception  of  a  more  vital  and  endur- 
ing freedom. 

But  there  are  now  four  States  of  the  Union 
where  women  have  full  suffrage,  a  few  where 
they  have  a  measure  of  municipal  suffrage,  and 
many  where  they  nave  the  school  suffrage.  What 
bearing  do  these  facts  have  upon  my  claim  that 
woman  suffrage  is  undemocratic  ? 

The  States  where  they  have  full  suffrage  are 
Utah,  Wyoming,  Colorado,  and  Idaho.  How  far 
was  its  introduction  into  these  States  the  result 
of  advanced  legislation  in  accord  with  true  repub- 
licanism ?  Utah  Territory  was  the  first  spot  in 
the  country  in  which  the  measure  gained  a  foot- 
hold, and  that  was  not  believed  by  its  intro- 
ducers to  be  a  part  of  the  United  States.  The 
Mormons  who  founded  Salt  Lake  City  supposed 
themselves  to  be  settling  on  Mexican  territory, 
outside  the  j  urisdiction  of  American  law.  Woman 
suffrage  was  almost  coincident  with  its  begin- 
nings, and  it  came  as  a  legitimate  part  of  the 
union  of  state  and  church,  of  communism,  of 
polygamy.  The  dangers  that  especially  threaten 
a  republican  form  of  government  are  anarchy,  com- 
munism, and  religious  bigotry  ;  and  two  of  these 
found  their  fullest  expression,  in  this  country, 
in  the  Mormon  creed  and  practice.  Fealty  to 
Mormonism  was  disloyalty  to  the  United  States 
Government.  Thus,  the  introduction  of  woman 
suffrage  within  our  borders  was  not  only  undem- 
ocratic, it  was  anti-democratic. 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC  f         31 

Woman  suffrage  was  secured  in  "Wyoming  by 
means  that  bring  dishonor  upon  democracy. 
Wyoming  was  organized  as  a  Territory  in  1868. 
Many  of  its  native  settlers  were  from  Utah. 
For  its  vast,  mountainous  extent  of  nearly  98,000 
square  miles,  the  census  gave  a  population  of  only 
9,118  persons.  Of  these  the  native-born  numbered 
5,605,  foreign-born,  3,513.  The  males  numbered 
7,219  ;  the  females,  1,899.  The  "  History  of 
Woman  Suffrage  "  records  the  fact  that  the  meas- 
ure was  secured  in  the  first  Territorial  legislature 
through  the  political  trickery  of  an  illiterate  and 
discredited  man,  who  was  in  the  chair.  Mr. 
Bryce,  in  "  The  American  Commonwealth,"  alludes 
in  a  note  to  the  same  fact.  Women  voted  in  1870. 
In  1871  a  bill  was  passed  repealing  the  suffrage 
act,  but  was  vetoed  by  the  Governor,  on  the 
ground  that,  having  been  admitted,  it  must  be 
given  a  fair  trial.  An  attempt  to  pass  the  repeal 
over  his  veto  was  lost  by  a  single  vote.  Cer- 
tainly, the  entrance  of  woman  suffrage  into 
Wyoming  was  not  a  triumph  of  democratic  pro- 
gress and  principle. 

Colorado  was  admitted  into  the  Union  in  1876, 
and  great  efforts  were  made  by  Suffragists  to 
secure  the  "  Centennial"  State.  This  resulted  in 
a  submission  of  the  question  to  the  people,  who 
rejected  it  by  a  majority  of  7,443  in  a  total  vote 
of  20,665.  From  the  first  of  the  agitation  for  the 
free  coinage  of  silver,  Colorado  has  been  enthu- 
siastically in  favor  of  that  measure.  In  1892 


32  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

her  devotion  to  it  caused  all  parties  to  unite  on 
that  issue  and  gave  tke  vote  of  the  State  to  Gen- 
eral Weaver,  Populist  candidate  for  President,  and 
to  David  H.  "Waite,  Populist  candidate  for  Gover- 
nor. The  question  of  woman  suffrage  was  re-sub- 
mitted to  the  people  at  this  election,  and  the  con- 
stitutional amendment  concerning  it  was  carried 
by  a  majority  of  only  5,000  in  a  total  vote  of 
200,000.  Neither  that  movement  nor  its  results 
present  triumphant  democracy. 

In  1894  the  Populist  party  of  Idaho  put  a  plank 
in  its  platform  favoring  the  submission  of  a 
woman-suffrage  amendment  to  the  people.  In  1896 
the  Free  Silver  Populist  movement  swept  the  State. 
A  majority  of  the  votes  cast  on  the  Suffrage  ques- 
tion were  cast  in  its  favor,  but  not  a  majority  of 
all  the  votes  cast  at  the  election.  The  supreme 
courts  have  generally  held  that,  in  so  important 
a  matter,  a  complete  majority  vote  was  required, 
but  the  Supreme  Court  of  Idaho  did  not  so  hold, 
and  woman  suffrage  is  now  established  in  that 
State.  This,  also,  is  hardly  a  success  of  sound 
democracy. 

The  subject  of  woman  suffrage  has  lately  been 
dealt  with  by  two  States  that  represent  republican 
progress  at  its  best.  They  are  New  York  and 
Massachusetts.  In  the  former  State  a  Constitu- 
tional Convention  in  1894  gave  an  impartial  hear- 
ing to  the  subject,  and  decided  not  to  submit  to 
the  people  an  amendment  striking  the  word  "  male" 
from  the  State  Constitution.  Massachusetts  at  its 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?        33 

State  election  in  1895  asked  the  people  to  vote 
upon  the  question  of  extending  municipal  suffrage 
to  women,  and  the  answer  was  given  in  a  heavy 
adverse  majority.  Fewer  than  four  in  one  hun- 
dred women  qualified  to  vote  on  the  subject  voted 
in  its  favor,  and  half  a  million  women  declined  to 
vote  at  all.  A  majority  of  over  100,000  votes  was 
cast  against  it  by  men.  Utah  and  New  York, 
Wyoming  and  Massachusetts,  which  States  do 
Americans  hold  up  as  nearest  their  model  ?  In 
which  have  women  made  most  progress,  and 
showed  themselves  most  likely  to  understand  their 
rights,  privileges  and  duties  ? 

During  the  late  Presidential  election  the  issues 
passed  the  boundary  that  separates  party  politics 
from  patriotic  faith.  For  months  preceding  that 
struggle  the  Suffrage  body  had  conducted  the 
most  efficient  campaign  in  its  history.  When  the 
test  came,  California  voted  for  sound  money 
against  repudiation,  for  authority  against  anarchy, 
by  a  small  majority,  and  threw  its  ballots  heavily 
against  woman  suffrage.  With  the  enthusiastic 
help  of  its  woman  voters,  Colorado  gave  its  electo- 
ral voice  16  to  1  against  sound  money  and  sound 
Americanism.  Which  State  can  claim  that  its 
action  rings  truest  to  the  stroke  of  honest  metal 
in  finance  and  in  defence  of  national  honor  ? 

A  few  States  have  extended  municipal  suffrage 

to  woman.     It  is  generally  local  and  restricted 

Only  in  Kansas  is  there  full  municipal  suffrage. 

Dr.   Jacobi,   in    her    "  Common   Sense,"    says: 

3 


34  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

"  Municipal  suffrage  in  Kansas  demands  no  pro- 
perty qualification,  and  its  exercise  therefore  does 
not  differ  in  the  least  from  that  required  in  a 
Presidential  election."  This  is  a  mistake,  for  the 
difference  is  essential  and  illustrates  the  undemo- 
cratic character  of  woman  suffrage.  Municipal 
suffrage  in  Kansas,  like  the  Territorial  suffrage  in 
Wyoming,  was  given  by  legislative  act,  and  could 
be  done  away  with  by  another  legislative  act  with- 
out appeal  to  the  people,  or  any  change  of  the 
Constitution.  It  did  not  touch  the  vital  question 
whether  women,  in  a  democracy,  could  form  a 
component  part  of  the  government.  Mrs.  Stan  ton 
well  understood  that  difference.  Kansas  had  long 
possessed  local  municipal  suffrage  when,  in  1894, 
the  question  of  granting  full  suffrage,  by  consti- 
tutional amendment,  was  submitted  to  the  people. 
Mrs.  Stanton  then  wrote :  "  My  hope  now  rests 
with  Kansas.  If  that  fails  too,  we  must  trust  no 
longer  to  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties, 
but  henceforth  give  our  money,  our  eloquence, 
our  enthusiasm  to  a  People's  party  that  will  recog- 
nize woman  as  an  equal  factor  in  a  new  civiliza- 
tion." There  was  enough  leaven  of  republicanism 
working  then  to  cause  the  old  fighting-ground, 
the  free-soil  State,  to  reject  the  amendment  by  a 
popular  majority  of  35,000.  To  the  "  People's 
Party  "  in  Kansas  woman  suffrage  may  look  for 
the  most  striking  illustration  of  its  results.  Where 
municipal  suffrage  could  be  secured  only  by  con- 
stitutional enactment,  and  was  so  secured,  it 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC?         35 

would  differ  merely  in  degree  from  presidential 
suffrage ;  but  it  never  has  been  so  secured  in  any 
State  except  those  that  give  full  constitutional 
suffrage.  It  is  on  a  par  with  school  suffrage,  ex- 
cept that  legislative  enactment  extends  the  vote 
to  town  and  city  matters. 

The  history  of  the  school  suffrage  affords 
another  proof  of  the  incompatibility  of  republi- 
canism and  constitutional  suffrage  for  woman. 
Dr.  Jacobi  recognizes  the  difference  between 
constitutional  and  school  suffrage  when  she  says : 
"  Women  continually  sign  petitions  for  this 
privilege,  till  startled  by  the  discovery  that  it 
also  means  something  else.  It  means,  however, 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  according  to  the  de- 
cision of  the  Supreme  Court,  that  woman  can 
only  enjoy  this  privilege  thoroughly  if  empowered 
by  constitutional  amendment  to  vote  for  all  offi- 
cers as  well  as  for  school  commissioners."  The 
States  that  have  refused  to  comply  with  the 
Suffragists'  demand  for  the  elective  franchise, 
the  most  progressive  States,  have  been  first  to 
grant  school  suffrage,  under  constitutional  limits. 
The  twenty-seven  odd  States  that  grant  school 
suffrage  have  had  different  methods  of  dealing 
with  the  question,  because  their  laws  differ,  but 
both  the  positive  proof  of  its  being  granted,  and 
the  negative  proof  of  its  being  withheld,  tell  the 
same  story  in  regard  to  the  fundamental  principle 
involved.  This  is  shown  strikingly  in  the  situa- 
tion in  Kansas.  Women  have  full  municipal 


36  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

suffrage,  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  that  State 
decided  that  they  could  vote  for  school  treasurer, 
which  was  a  charter  office,  but  could  not  vote 
for  County  Superintendent  of  Schools,  because  that 
office  was  provided  for  in  the  Constitution.  The 
school  suffrage  may  or  may  not  have  a  property 
qualification  attached.  That  makes  no  difference. 
The  difference  is  the  essential  one  between  dele- 
gated power  and  sovereign  power.  The  States 
differ  so  widely  in  their  methods  of  dealing  with 
municipal  as  well  as  school  legislation,  that  only 
a  study  of  the  laws  of  each  State  will  reveal  the 
situation.  In  Ohio,  in  1895,  for  instance,  the 
Legislature  passed  a  bill  enabling  women  to  vote 
on  a  municipal  tax-levy,  which  the  courts  held  was 
unconstitutional,  while  they  granted  votes  on 
license  and  other*  local  questions. 

In  answer  to  the  question  whether,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, a  woman  could  be  a  member  of  a  school 
committee,  the  Supreme  Court  returned  the  fol- 
lowing decision  in  1874  :  "  The  Constitution  con- 
tains nothing  relating  to  school  committees ;  the 
office  is  created  and  regulated  by  statute ;  and  the 
Constitution  confers  upon  the  General  Court  full 
power  and  authority  to  name  and  settle  annually, 
or  provide  by  fixed  laws  for  naming  and  settling, 
all  civil  officers  within  the  Commonwealth  the 
election  and  constitution  of  whom  are  not  in 
the  Constitution  otherwise  provided  for.  The 
question  is  therefore  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive." 


IS  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  DEMOCRATIC ?         37 

The  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  in  1892,  held 
that  "  School  Commissioners  are  constitutional 
officers  within  Article  II.  part  1  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  consequently  the  law  of  1892  giving 
women  the  right  to  vote  for  them  is  void."  The 
case  was  that  of  Matilda  Joslyn  Gage.  The 
office  of  School  Commissioner  was  created  after 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  it  was  there- 
fore urged  that  the  Constitution  did  not  bear 
upon  it ;  but  the  Supreme  Court  further  decided 
that  the  law  gave  the  Legislature  the  right  to 
appoint  or  to  elect  the  Commissioner ;  and  as 
they  had  decided  -that  the  office  should  be  elec- 
tive, the  women  could  not  vote  for  that  office. 
They  vote  for  district-school  officers  under  various 
local  permissions  or  limitations.  In  a  case  brought 
to  decide  the  right  of  women  to  vote  for  County 
Superintendent  of  Schools  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Illinois,  in  1893,  held  that,  as  the  office  was  de- 
signated in  the  Constitution  as  elective,  women 
could  not  vote  for  it.  The  decision  further  said. 
"  The  votes  for  State  Superintendent  of  Instruc- 
tion, and  County  Superintendent,  are  provided 
for  by  law,  and  the  Legislature  cannot  change  the 
law.  It  may  be  that  it  is  competent  for  the 
Legislature  to  provide  that  women  who  are 
citizens  of  the  United  States  and  over  twenty-one 
may  vote  at  elections  held  for  school  directors 
and  other  school  officers  not  mentioned  in  the 
Constitution."  Later,  the  Supreme  Court  held 
that  women  were  entitled  to  vote  for  school 


88  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

trustees,  as  "no  officer  of  the  school  district  is 
mentioned  in  the  State  Constitution." 

The  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio,  in  1894,  held  that 
the  provision  of  the  act  of  April  24,  1894,  con- 
ferring upon  women  the  right  to  vote  at  elec- 
tions of  certain  school  officers,  is  valid,  such  right 
being  within  the  legislative  power  to  provide 
for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  public 
schools,  and  not  within  Article  Y.  part  1,  of  the 
Constitution,  which  limits  the  right  to  male 
citizens.  Judge  Shauck  says  :  "  The  whole  sub- 
ject of  the  public  schools  is  delegated  to  the  As- 
sembly. As  the  common-school  organization  is 
wholly  a  creation  of  the  Legislature,  it  is  in  the 
power  of  the  Legislature  to  determine  the  quali- 
fications of  an  elector  and  office-holder  in  it."  In 
upholding  his  ruling,  he  cited  similar  decisions 
from  the  Supreme  Courts  of  Illinois,  Kansas, 
Nebraska,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  and  Iowa. 

This  rapid  survey  suggests,  it  seems  to  me,  that, 
instead  of  being  "a  legitimate  outgrowth  of 
the  fundamental  principles  of  our  government," 
woman  suffrage  is  really  incompatible  with  true 
republican  forms.  Pre-civilized  conditions,  aris- 
tocratic tendencies,  the  forces  that  would  destroy 
government — these  appear  to  be  its  natural  allies. 
We  must  study  more  closely  its  connection  with 
representative  government  the  better  to  compre- 
hend this  portentous  truth. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

WOMAN    SUFFRAGE   AND   THE   AMERICAN   REPUBLIC. 

THE  writers  of  the  "History  of  "Woman  Suf- 
frage "  give  the  following  account  of  the  founding 
of  their  Association.  In  July,  1848,  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  Lucretia  Mott,  Martha  C.  Wright, 
and  Ann  McClintock  issued  an  unsigned  call  for 
a  convention,  which  was  asked  to  consider  the 
social,  civil,  and  religious  condition  and  rights  of 
woman ;  and  in  preparation  for  the  meeting,  they 
wrote  a  "  Declaration  of  Sentiments,"  which  was 
adopted  by  the  assembly.  They  say,  in  describing 
the  writing  of  this  declaration : — "  The  reports  of 
Peace,  Temperance,  and  Anti-Slavery  conventions 
were  examined,  but  all  alike  seemed  too  tame  and 
pacific  for  the  inauguration  of  a  rebellion  such 
as  the  world  had  never  before  seen.  We  knew 
women  had  wrongs,  but  how  to  state  them  was 
the  difficulty,  and  this  was  increased  from  the  fact 
that  we  ourselves  were  fortunately  organized  and 
conditioned.  .  .  .  After  much  delay,  one  of  the 
circle  took  up  the  Declaration  of  1TT6,  and  read 
it  aloud  with  spirit  and  emphasis,  and  it  was  at 
once  decided  to  adopt  the  historic  document,  Avith 

some  slight  changes.     Knowing  that  women  must 

39 


40  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

have  more  to  complain  of  than  men  under  any  cir- 
cumstances possibly  could,  and  seeing  the  Fathers 
had  eighteen  grievances,  a  protracted  search  was 
made  through  statute  books,  church  usages,  and 
the  customs  of  society  to  find  that  exact  number." 

In  such  solemnly  puerile  fashion  did  they  work 
out  a  travesty  on  one  of  the  most  august  utter- 
ances ever  penned.  A  young  man  who  was 
present  remarked :  "  Your  grievances  must  be 
grievous  indeed  when  you  are  obliged  to  go  to 
books  in  order  to  find  them  out."  He  might  have 
added,  "  And  they  must  be  false  indeed  when  you 
have  to  found  most  of  your  charges  on  dead-letter 
statutes  and  outgrown  usages  and  customs." 

The  Preamble  of  their  Declaration  reads : 
"  When,  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes 
necessary  for  one  portion  of  the  family  of  man  to 
assume  among  the  people  of  the  earth  a  position 
different  from  that  which  they  have  hitherto 
occupied,  but  one  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and 
of  nature's  God  entitle  them,  a  decent  respect  to 
the  opinions  of  mankind  requires  that  they  should 
declare  the  causes  that  impel  them  to  such  a 
course." 

The  declaration  is  as  follows  :  "  We  hold  these 
truths  to  be  self-evident:  That  all  men  and 
women  are  created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness ;  that  to  secure  these  rights  govern- 
ments are  instituted,  deriving  their  just  powers 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  41 

from  the  consent  of  the  governed.  Whenever  any 
form,  of  government  becomes  destructive  of  these 
ends,  it  is  the  right  of  those  who  suffer  from  it  to 
refuse  allegiance  to  it,  and  to  insist  upon  the  in- 
stitution of  a  new  government,  laying  its  founda- 
tion on  such  principles,  and  organizing  its  powers 
in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to 
effect  their  safety  and  happiness.  Prudence,  in- 
deed, will  dictate  that  governments  long  estab- 
lished should  not  be  changed  for  light  and  tran- 
sient causes ;  and  accordingly  all  experience  hath 
shown  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to  suffer, 
while  evils  are  suff  erable,  than  to  right  themselves 
by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  were  ac- 
customed. But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and 
usurpations,  pursuing  invariably  the  same  object, 
evinces  a  design  to  reduce  them  under  absolute 
despotism,  it  is  their  duty  to  throw  off  such  gov- 
ernment, and  to  provide  new  guards  for  their 
future  security.  Such  has  been  the  patient  suf- 
ferance of  the  women  under  this  government,  and 
such  is  now  the  necessity  which  constrains  them 
to  demand  the  equal  station  to  which  they  are  en- 
titled. The  history  of  mankind  is  a  history  of 
repeated  injuries  and  usurpations  on  the  part  of 
man  toward  woman,  having  in  direct  object  the 
establishment  of  an  absolute  tyranny  over  her. 
To  prove  this,  let  facts  be  submitted  to  a  candid 
world/'  Then  follows  a  categorical  parody  of  the 
eighteen  grievances,  which  will  be  duly  considered 
in  this  and  later  chapters. 


42  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

After  thirty  years  of  Suffrage  effort,  the  leaders 
say  that  this  instrument  contained  all  that  the 
most  radical  have  ever  claimed.  The  Fathers  of 
the  Revolution  say  in  their  Preamble :  "  When,  in 
the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes  necessary 
for  one  people  to  dissolve  the  political  bands 
which  have  connected  them  with  another,  and  to 
assume  among  the  powers  of  the  earth  the  sepa- 
rate and  equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of  nature 
and  of  nature's  God  entitle  them,  a  decent  respect 
to  the  opinions  of  mankind  requires  that  they 
should  declare  the  causes  which  impel  them  to  the 
separation."  The  Mothers  of  the  Woman's  Rebel- 
lion say :  "  When,  in  the  course  of  human  events, 
it  becomes  necessary  for  one  portion  of  the  family 
of  man  to  assume  among  the  people  of  the  earth 
a  position  different  from  that  which  they  have 
hitherto  occupied,  but  one  to  which  the  laws  of 
nature  and  of  nature's  God  entitle  them,  a  decent 
respect  for  the  opinions  of  mankind  requires  that 
they  should  declare  the  causes  that  impel-  them  to 
such  a  course."  The  strained  and  ridiculous  atti- 
tude produced  by  ignoring  the  essential  difference 
between  a  political  movement  and  a  sex  move- 
ment is  visible  in  every  line,  and  yet  that  instinct 
which  finds  for  a  new  cause  its  appropriate  chan- 
nel never  carried  more  truly  than  in  this  present- 
ment of  the  ultimate  purpose  of  woman  suffrage. 
The  Fathers  were  met  to  dissolve  the  relations 
that  bound  their  land  politically  to  a  foreign 
power,  and  to  form  a  separate  and  equal  nation. 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  43 

The  Mothers  were  met  to  dissolve  the  relations 
that  bound  their  sex  politically  to  man,  and  to 
form  a  separate  and  equal  sex  organization.  The 
Fathers  proposed  to  free  men,  women,  and  children 
from  the  yoke  of  England.  The  Mothers  pro- 
posed to  free  women  and  girls  from  the  yoke  of 
men.  It  is  suggestive  to  consider  the  "  slight 
changes,"  between  the  two  Declarations. 

The  Fathers  of  the  Revolution  begin  their  pro- 
test by  saying:  "We  hold  these  truths  to  be 
self-evident  : —  That  all  men  are  created  equal, 
that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with 
certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among  these  are 
life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  The 
Mothers  of  the  Woman's  Rebellion  add  nothing 
to  the  meaning,  but  detract  greatly  from  the  force 
of  its  expression,  Avhen  in  their  parody  they  say  : 
"  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  That 
all  men  and  women  are  created  equal,  and  are  en- 
dowed by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable 
rights  ;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness."  These  women  of  all  in 
America  were  the  first  to  belittle  themselves  by 
seeming  to  assume  that  in  a  revolutionary  docu- 
ment that  was  promulgated  to  declare  a  determi- 
nation to  wrest  from  tyranny  the  liberty  that  was 
an  inalienable  right  for  all,  they  and  their  sex 
Avere  excluded  because  the  generic  term  "  man " 
was  employed  in  relation  to  another  inalienable 
right,  which  was  about  to  be  set  forth, — that 
of  revolution  against  intolerable  tyranny.  The 


44  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Americans  who  framed  that  instrument  would 
have  been  the  last  men  in  the  world  to  assert  that 
women  were  not  the  equals  of  men.  They  were 
not  discussing  abstract  human  or  sex  conditions. 
They  met  "  to  institute  a  new  government."  The 
Mothers  of  the  Woman's  Kebellion  had  an  inalien- 
able right  to  meet  "  to  institute  a  new  govern- 
ment," if  they  believed  as  sincerely  as  did  the 
Fathers  of  the  Revolution  that  "  a  long  train  of 
abuses  and  usurpations,  pursuing  invariably  the 
same  object,  evinced  a  design  to  reduce  them  under 
absolute  despotism."  Life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness  were  their  natural  and  God- 
given  rights.  If  they  truly  believed  that  these 
were  trampled  upon  by  government,  they  might  be 
justified  in  revolting  and  attempting  to  form  a 
new  government.  That  they  did  not  so  believe, 
seems  to  be  proved  by  their  statement  that "  they 
knew  that  woman  had  wrongs,  but  how  to  state 
them  was  the  difficulty,  and  this  was  increased 
from  the  fact  that  they  themselves  were  fortu- 
nately organized  and  conditioned."  The  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  meant  war  against  the 
ever-growing  encroachment  of  despotism.  The 
gauntlet  was  thrown  down  at  the  feet  of  a  king 
by  his  subjects.  The  Declaration  of  Sentiments 
meant  war  against  the  whole  social  order  as  then 
constituted.  The  gauntlet  was  thrown  down  at 
the  feet  of  man  by  those  who  declared  him  to  be 
a  determined  foe. 

They  had  not  the  remotest  notion  of  "  institut- 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  45 

ing  a  new  government,"  far  from  it ;  they  relied 
upon  the  old  government  to  sustain  them  in  mak- 
ing their  attempted  "  rebellion "  a  revolution. 
Without  the  backing  of  the  state's  defence,  they 
had  no  expectation  or  hope  of  enforcing  any  new 
enactment  they  might  desire.  They  were  gladly 
consenting  to  be  governed,  in  order  to  prove  that 
they  withheld  consent. 

Should  woman  suffrage  prevail,  the  foundation 
principles  of  democracy  would  have  to  be  over- 
thrown and  "  a  new  government  instituted "  in 
which  the  power  should  be  delegated  and  not 
direct,  if  the  nation  thus  formed  was  to  "  assume 
among  the  powers  of  the  earth  a  separate  and 
equal  station."  The  leaders  of  the  Suffrage 
movement  well  understood  that  they  claimed  no 
inalienable  right  to  institute  a  new  government, 
and  this  is  again  shown  in  another  "  slight  change" 
made  by  them.  The  first  count  in  the  suffrage 
indictment  against  all  men,  but  especially  against 
those  of  the  American  Eepublic,  reads  as  follows : 
"  He  has  never  permitted  her  to  exercise  her 
inalienable  right  to  the  elective  franchise."  The 
Fathers  made  no  claim  or  suggestion  that  the 
suffrage  was  an  inalienable  right,  or  a  right  at 
all.  Not  only  is  there  nothing  to  intimate  that 
voting  was  a  natural  right,  but  from  that  day  to 
this  it  has  been  the  theory  and  the  practice  of  our 
Government  to  control  the  suffrage.  The  fact 
that  "  governments  were  instituted  among  men  " 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  inalienable  rights, 


46  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

proves  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  Declarers  the 
method  of  instituting  a  government  was  not  in 
itself  inalienable.  Governments  to  secure  certain 
inalienable  rights  are  instituted  among  men,  wrote 
Jefferson,  "  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the 
consent  of  the  governed."  This  was  not  the  first 
government  founded  upon  "  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned." The  English  government  had  been  so 
founded,  but  our  fathers  now  refused  their  consent. 
That  particular  government  could  no  longer  exist 
for  them  with  their  consent.  In  their  judgment, 
it  had  become  destructive  of  the  proper  ends  of  all 
government,  and  so  they  proclaimed  that  the  in- 
alienable right  to  liberty  made  it — to  use  the 
words  of  the  Declaration — "  the  right,  the  duty, 
of  those  who  suffer  from  it  to  refuse  allegiance  to 
it,  and  to  institute  a  new  government." 

In  the  New  York  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1867,  Mr.  George  William  Curtis  defended  the 
proposition  so  to  amend  the  Constitution  as  to 
extend  the  suffrage  to  women.  In  the  course  of 
his  eloquent  remarks  he  said  :  "  The  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  asked  Miss  Anthony  whether,  if 
suffrage  was  a  natural  right,  it  could  be  denied  to 
children?  Her  answer  seemed  to  me  perfectly 
satisfactory.  She  said  simply,  '  All  that  we  ask 
is  an  equal  and  not  an  arbitrary  regulation.  If 
you  have  the  right,  we  have  it.' ':  To  me  it  seems 
to  discredit  the  logical  powers  both  of  Miss 
Anthony  and  of  Mr.  Curtis  that  one  should  have 
made  this  reply  and  the  other  should  have  rested 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  47 

content  with  it.  That  was  a  pertinent  question, 
and  it  was  not  answered  at  all.  To  say  "  if  you 
have  the  right,  we  have  it,"  is  not  to  tell  whether 
one  thinks  children  should  have  it.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  an  agitation  of  "  the  rights  of  minors " 
arose  from  the  discussion  of  "  natural  right,"  and 
also  an  agitation  for  "  minority  representation " 
that  is  continued  to  this  day.  Mr.  Curtis  added : 
"The  honorable  Chairman  would  hardly  deny 
that  to  regulate  the  exercise  of  a  right  according 
to  obvious  reason  and  experience  is  one  thing,  to 
deny  it  absolutely  and  forever  is  another."  To 
regulate  a  law  is  to  abolish  it,  either  relatively  or 
absolutely,  for  some,  and  to  maintain  it  for  others. 
When  the  State  of  New  York  says  that  no  alien 
who  has  not  been  naturalized  shall  vote,  that  no 
boy  under  twenty -one  shall  vote,  that  no  person 
resident  in  one  town  or  ward  shall  vote  in  another, 
that  no  criminal  or  pauper  shall  vote, — it  acts  on 
the  natural  principle  of  self-defence,  which  con- 
travenes the  dogma  of  a  natural  right  of  any  one 
to  the  suffrage.  On  that  principle  it  would  be 
impossible  for  the  Congress  to  impeach  a  Presi- 
dent ;  to  forbid,  as  it  did,  those  who  had  been  in 
rebellion  from  voting ;  or  to  deny  the  suffrage  to 
a  child  or  to  any  human  being.  Government 
itself  becomes  impossible.  Judge  Story,  whom 
Suffrage  writers  claim  as  favorable  to  their  cause 
on  other  grounds,  says  that  the  right  of  voting 
has  always  been  treated  as  a  granted  and  not  a 
natural  right,  derived  from  and  regulated  by  each 


48  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

country  according  to  its  ideas  of  government. 
Both  Federal  and  State  courts  have  decided  again 
and  again  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  natural 
right  to  suffrage. 

The  "  consent  of  the  governed  "  certainly  meant 
something  very  different  to  our  fathers,  and  to  our 
statesmen,  and  to  ourselves,  from  what  it  could 
mean  to  any  other  government  on  earth.  Although 
the  phrase  itself  may  have  been  a  euphemism 
which  sprang  from  Jefferson's  sympathy  with 
the  mighty  rumblings  of  feeling  that  preceded 
the  French  Revolution,  still,  it  was  certainly 
meant  that,  so  far  as  they  could  make  it  so,  there 
should  be  vastly  more  consenting  by  popular  vote 
than  had  been  dreamed  of  in  the  mother  country. 
But  it  did  not  mean  that  each  and  every  individ- 
ual in  the  state  must  consent  to  each  and  every 
law  that  governed  him ;  for  not  only  has  no  gov- 
ernment ever  been  instituted  which  derived  "  just 
powers  "  in  that  way,  but  none  ever  will  be,  for 
there  never  can  be  such  unanimity.  It  did  not 
mean  that  every  individual  must  consent  to  be 
governed  somehow,  by  some  scheme  of  govern- 
ment ;  for  its  laws  were  carefully  framed  so  as  to 
compel  the  external  allegiance  of  those  who  never 
consent — the  criminal  and  the  anarchist.  It  did 
not  mean  even  that  consent,  in  the  sense  of  agree- 
ment, was  expected  from  a  large  body,  or  a  small 
body,  as  the  case  might  happen,  of  those  who 
held  views  opposed  to  the  policies  that  were  con- 
trolling at  any  given  time.  It  meant  just  what 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  49 

Jefferson  meant  in  that  other  dictum  of  his  :  "  The 
will  of  the  majority  is  the  natural  law  of  every 
society,  and  the  only  sure  guardian  of  the  rights 
of  man."  Together  they  interpret  each  other, 
and  are  worthy  of  our  Declaration  and  our  Bill 
of  Rights. 

The  inalienable  right  to  liberty  in  all  mankind 
forbids  the  right  of  anarchy  in  any  of  mankind  ; 
and  the  question  of  woman  suffrage,  strange  as  it 
may  appear,  actually  narrows  itself  down,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  to  the  question  whether  we  shall  have 
democracy  or  anarchy.  Democratic  government 
is  at  an  end  when  those  who  issue  decrees  are  not 
identical  with  those  who  can  enforce  those  decrees. 

But,  after  all,  the  claim  to  suffrage  as  a  natural 
right  has  been  practically  abandoned  by  those 
who  first  made  that  claim.  Their  next  proposi- 
tion was,  that  it  was  a  universal  right,  springing 
from  the  necessary  conditions  of  organized  society, 
and  so  should  be  granted  to  woman  as  a  member 
of  that  society.  They  say  in  their  Declaration : 
"  He  deprived  her  of  the  first  right  of  a  citizen — 
the  elective  franchise."  Chief  Justice  Waite  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  decided  that 
citizenship  carried  with  it  no  voting  power  or 
right.  The  same  decision  has  been  handed  down 
by  many  courts  in  disposing  of  test  cases. 

It  seems  to  me  quite  as  evident  that  what  is  now 

called  universal  manhood  suffrage  does  not  rest 

upon  any  belief  by  the  state  that  this  is  "  the  first 

right  of  a  citizen,"  because  no  one  doubts  that  if 

4 


50  WOMAN  AND  TI1E  REPUBLIC. 

the  time  came  when  a  majority  deemed  that  the 
preservation  of  the  state  depended  upon  disfran- 
chising a  number  of  voters,  they  would  be  dis- 
franchised although  they  remained  citizens.  The 
Suffrage  leaders  have,  in  theory  at  least,  also 
abandoned  the  claim  to  suffrage  on  the  ground  of 
their  universal  right  as  citizens.  A  proof  of  this 
is  seen  in  the  fact  that  at  various  times  they  have 
suggested  the  extension  of  suffrage  under  qualifi- 
cation. Among  the  latest  that  I  have  noticed,  is 
an  address  of  Mrs.  Stanton's  to  a  Suffrage  Con- 
vention held  in  1894,  in  which  she  proposed  the 
following:  "Resolved,  that  the  women  of  New 
York  petition  the  Legislature  of  the  State  to  ex- 
tend the  suffrage  to  women  on  an  educational 
qualification."  She  must  therefore  believe  that 
the  Legislature  has  the  legal  right  to  qualify  it  for 
men ;  and  to  withhold  it  from  women  is  but  an 
extension  of  the  right  to  qualify  suffrage,  because 
it  only  says  :  "  We  do  not  consider  woman  citizens 
qualified  to  be  voters."  Writing  a  year  ago,  Mrs. 
Stanton  said :  "  It  is  the  duty  of  the  educated 
women  of  this  Republic  to  protest  against  the  ex- 
tension of  the  suffrage  to  another  man  until  they 
themselves  are  enfranchised ! "  Thus  it  would 
appear  that  Mrs.  Stanton  does  not  believe  in  uni- 
versal suffrage.  A  Suffrage  speaker  in  New  York 
not  long  ago  said  naively  :  "  We  [the  women, 
when  enfranchised]  will  vote  to  withhold  the 
suffrage  from  the  ignorant."  She  did  not  explain 
what  would  happen  if  the  ignorant  voted  not  to 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  51 

have  the  suffrage  withheld ;  nor  did  she  appear 
to  realize  that  she  was  practically  admitting  that 
the  present  voters  have  the  right  to  withhold  the 
suffrage  from  those  whom  they  consider  unfitted 
for  it. 

But  it  is  not  true  that  American  women  did 
not,  and  do  not,  "  consent  to  be  governed."  They 
have  always  consented  loyally  and  joyfully.  From 
the  time  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party  down  to  the 
Civil  War,  and  in  such  times  of  peace  and  pros- 
perity as  were  indicated  by  the  Columbian  Ex- 
position, when  the  Government  formally  asked 
the  assistance  of  its  woman  citizens,  they  showed 
their  consent  by  their  deeds,  and  only  the  suf- 
frage faction  treated  the  invitation  to  share  in  the 
Exposition  after  the  immemorial  fashion  of  a  dis- 
contented element.  And  the  Suffragists  themselves 
consent  to  be  governed  every  time  they  accept  the 
protection  of  the  law  or  invoke  it  against  a  debtor  ; 
for  they  thereby  acknowledge  its  proper  applica- 
tion to  themselves  if  the  case  were  reversed. 

The  second  count  in  the  list  of  political  griev- 
ances runs :  "  He  has  compelled  her  to  submit  to 
laws  in  the  formation  of  which  she  had  no  voice." 
This  was  not  true,  for  the  women  who  wrote  that 
sentence  were  free  to  use  their  voices  in  regard  to 
every  law  they  desired  to  affect,  and  circumstances 
have  proved  that  they  were  sure  of  being  heard, 
and,  if  the  law  were  just,  and  for  the  general 
good,  of  assisting  materially  to  establish  it.  At 
the  very  time  when  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  and 


52  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Lucretia  Mott  were  writing  that  indictment 
against  the  United  States-  Government,  Dorothea 
Dix  was  presenting  a  memorial  to  the  National 
Congress  asking  for  an  appropriation  of  five  hun- 
dred thousand  acres  of  the  public  lands  to  endow 
hospitals  for  the  indigent  insane.  That  bill  failed 
to  pass,  but  in  1850  another  bill,  which  she  pre- 
sented, asking  for  ten  millions  of  acres,  passed  the 
House  and  failed  in  the  Senate  merely  for  want 
of  time  to  consider  it.  Four  years  later  a  bill 
making  appropriations  of  the  ten  millions  of  acres 
to  the  separate  States  passed  both  houses,  and 
President  Pierce  vetoed  it,  because  he  believed 
the  general  Government  had  no  constitutional 
power  to  make  such  appropriations.  She  then 
went  to  the  Legislatures  of  the  States,  with  the 
result  that  is  so  well  known.  Rhode  Island,  Penn- 
sylvania, New  York,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Louisiana, 
and  North  Carolina  founded  lunatic  asylums,  and 
the  work  was  begun  which  is  culminating  in  the 
separation  of  the  insane  from  the  criminal,  the 
women  from  the  men,  in  every  town  and  county 
of  the  land.  The  right  of  petition  is  not  only  as 
open  to  women  as  to  men,  but  because  of  the  non- 
partisan  character  of  their  claims  and  suggestions 
they  find  quicker  hearing.  Miss  Louise  Lee 
Schuyler  has  been  more  successful  in  securing  the 
enactment  of  laws  for  which  she  presented  the 
need  than  any  one  politician  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  before  whose  Legislature  they  have  both 
pleaded, — he  with  a  vote  which  had  to  contend 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  53 

against  other  votes,  she  with  a  voice  that  spoke 
the  united  mind  of  a  body  of  philanthropic  women. 
There  was  no  unjust  law  which  the  Suffrage 
Association  could  not  have  changed  during  these 
fifty  years,  had  it  cared  to  try,  and  indeed  its 
members  make  the  boast  that  many  of  the  changes 
are  their  own.  Change  and  improvement  of  laws 
was  not  their  aim.  It  was  a  vote  upon  changing 
or  not  changing  laws  that  they  sought  for.  The 
difference  is  world- wide. 

The  third  count  in  the  indictment  runs  :  "  He 
has  withheld  from  her  rights  which  are  given  to 
the  most  ignorant  men — both  natives  and  foreign- 
ers." Dr.  Jacobi  represented  the  Suffrage  cause 
before  the  Special  Committee  of  the  Consti- 
tutional Convention  of  New  York  State  in  1894. 
After  drawing,  in  fine  and  truthfully  glow- 
ing words,  a  picture  of  woman's  progress  under 
the  institutions  and  laws  of  the  United  States, 
she  said  :  "  For  the  first  time,  all  political  right, 
privilege  and  power  reposes  undisguisedly  on  the 
one  brutal  fact  of  sex,  unsupported,  untempered, 
unalloyed  by  any  attribute  of  education,  any 
justification  of  intelligence,  any  glamour  of 
wealth,  any  prestige  of  birth,  any  insignia  of 
actual  poAver.  .  .  .  To-day,  the  immigrants 
pouring  in  through  the  open  gates  of  our  seaport 
towns,  the  Indian  when  settled  in  severalty,  the 
negro  hardly  emancipated  from  the  degradation 
of  two  hundred  years  of  slavery, — may  all  share 
in  the  sovereignty  of  the  State.  The  white 


54  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

woman, — the  woman  in  whose  veins  runs  the 
blood  of  those  heroic  colonists  who  founded  our 
country,  of  those  women  who  helped  to  sustain  the 
courage  of  their  husbands  in  the  Revolutionary 
War ;  the  woman  who  may  have  given  the  flower 
of  her  youth  and  health  in  the  service  of  our  Civil 
"War — that  woman  is  excluded.  To-day  women 
constitute  the  only  class  of  sane  people  excluded 
from  the  franchise,  the  only  class  deprived  of 
political  representation,  except  the  tribal  Indians 
and  the  Chinese."  To  the  same  effect  the  editors 
of  the  "  Suffrage  History  "  say :  "  The  superiority 
of  man  does  not  enter  into  the  demand  for 
suffrage  ;  for  in  this  country  all  men  vote ;  and  as 
the  lower  orders  of  men  are  not  superior  to  the 
higher  orders  of  women,  they  must  hold  and  ex- 
ercise the  right  of  self-government  on  sorn^e  other 
ground  than  superiority  to  woman."  Here  it 
would  seem  that  Mrs.  Stanton  and  Miss  Anthony 
had  been  thinking,  but  they  never  followed  their 
own  thought  to  its  inevitable  conclusion.  Uni- 
versal manhood  suffrage  does  relieve  the  men  of 
this  country  from  the  unjust  aspersion  the  women 
of  the  Suffrage  movement  put  upon  them,  that 
they  excluded  women  on  account  of  inferiority. 

No  native  American,  who  by  the  very  fact  of 
that  nativity  is  bound  to  support  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  no  foreign-born  citizen 
who  has  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  it,  has  a 
right  by  his  vote  to  do  anything  that  will  imperil 
or  impede  the  carrying  out  of  its  principles  and 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  55 

its  commands.  "  The  establishment  of  justice,  the 
insurement  of  domestic  tranquillity,  provision  for 
the  common  defence,  security  in  the  blessings  of 
liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,"  cannot 
be  perfected  or  maintained  without  the  present 
exercise  and  the  reserve  power  of  manhood 
strength.  This  Government  laid  aside  all  "at- 
tribute of  education,  or  glamour  of  wealth,  or 
prestige  of  birth,"  and  committed  its  life  to  the 
keeping  of  its  defenders.  In  this  land,  the 
vote  is  the  "insignia  of  actual  power,"  but  it 
is  only  the  insignia ;  the  power  to  defend  them- 
selves and  those  who  make  country  and  home 
worth  defending,  lies  with  the  individual  defend- 
ers. To  attempt  to  put  it  into  the  hands  of  those 
who  are  not  physically  fitted  to  maintain  the  ob- 
ligatiqps  that  may  result  from  any  vote  or  any 
legislative  act,  is  to  render  law  a  farce,  and  to  be- 
tray the  trust  imposed  upon  them  by  the  consti- 
tution they  have  sworn  to  uphold.  Universal 
manhood  suffrage  is  the  crowning  result  in  the 
long  evolution  of  government.  Our  statesmen  of 
the  Revolutionary  period  did  not  contemplate  it. 
But  stability  was  the  thing  for  which  they  sought 
— the  thing  for  which  all  statesmen  of  all  times 
have  been  searching.  If  a  government  is  not 
stable,  it  is  of  little  consequence  that  it  is  full  of 
noble  ideals  ;  and  the  most  far-reaching  thought 
has  now  grasped  the  idea  that  manhood  strength 
is  the  natural  and  only  defence  of  the  state.  This 
is  the  underlying  theory  of  our  Government,  the 


56  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

one  solid  rock  on  which  it  rests.  When  any  ques- 
tion of  governmental  policy  comes  up,  we  virtu- 
ally decide  it,  sooner  or  later,  by  a  manhood  vote ; 
and  as  the  decision  has  a  majority  of  the  men  of 
the  country  behind  it,  there  is  no  power  that  can 
overthrow  it.  If  we  attempt  to  establish  policies 
or  execute  laws  to  which  a  majority  of  the  men 
are  opposed,  we  throw  away  our  one  assurance  of 
stability,  and  are  in  constant  danger  of  revolu- 
tion. Even  in  the  comparatively  brief  history  of 
our  Republic,  there  are  plentiful  instances  to  show 
that  a  majority  of  men  will  not  submit  to  a  mi- 
nority, no  matter  how  many  non-combatants  are 
joined  with  that  minority.  To  give  women  a 
position  of  apparent  power,  without  its  reality, 
would  be  to  make  our  Government  forever  un- 
stable. I 

"  This  is  placing  the  Christian  and  civilized 
Government  that  stands  as  an  example  of  peace- 
ful progress  on  a  foundation  of  brute  force,"  cries 
the  Suffragist.  The  founders  of  the  Woman  Suf- 
frage movement  apparently  did  not  take  the  least 
account  of  either  the  military  or  the  judicial 
powers  that  are  provided  for  in  every  State  con- 
stitution, as  well  as  in  the  Nation's.  They  de- 
manded "immediate  admission  to  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  which  belong  to  them  as  citizens  of 
the  United  States,"  but  said  not  a  word  about  the 
duties,  disabilities,  and  money  loss  involved  in  the 
possession  of  those  rights  and  privileges.  Tho 
Fathers  of  the  Revolution  closed  their  Declara- 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  57 

tion  of  Independence  from  the  tyranny  of  Eng- 
land by  pledging  "  their  lives,  their  fortunes  and 
their  sacred  honor  "  to  attain  it.  The  Mothers  of 
the  Woman's  Rebellion  closed  their  Declaration 
of  Independence  from  the  tyranny  of  man,  and 
especially  from  the  tyranny  of  the  United  States 
Government,  with  a  pledge  to  distribute  tracts 
and  hold  conventions,  while  they  depended  upon 
the  courtesy  of  the  tyrants  to  protect  them  in  the 
peaceful  execution  of  their  design.  Is  it  any  won- 
der that  the  descendants  of  the  old  heroes  who 
had  fought  their  way  to  our  liberties  smiled  when 
the  by-laws  of  the  would-be  revolt  were  handed 
to  them  ? 

When  the  attention  of  the  women  was  called 
to  the  fact  that  force  was  needed,  and  that  women 
were  exempt  from,  military  service  and  jury  and 
police  duty,  they  answered  that  "  In  an  age  when 
the  wrongs  of  society  are  adjusted  in  the  courts 
and  at  the  ballot-box,  material  force  yields  to  rea- 
son and  majorities."  So  successful  has  our  Gov- 
ernment been  in  carrying  out  the  benign  purposes 
for  which  its  heroes  staked  their  lives,  their  fort- 
unes, and  their  sacred  honor,  that  in  ordinary 
times  we  see  little  of  the  strength  that  stands 
quietly  but  firmly  behind  every  law's  enactment 
and  every  poll's  decision.  The  "  strong  arm  "  of 
the  law  would  lose  its  power  to  compel  obedience 
if  behind  the  decree  of  judge,  jury,  and  legislators 
there  was  not  a  sheriff  or  a  body  of  militia  ready 
to  commit  the  unconsenting  criminal  to  prison,  or 


58  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

to  take  care  of  an  unruly  minority.  At  an  elec- 
tion, the  minority  do  not  acquiesce  in  the  decision 
of  the  majority  because  the  outcome  of  the  vote 
has  convinced  them  that  the  majority  were  right, 
and  they  were  wrong.  They  have  not  become 
suddenly  converted  to  the  views  of  the  majority. 
That  decision,  as  recorded  by  the  ballot,  shows 
that  if  the  minority  do  not  keep  their  opinion  in 
abeyance,  there  are  men  enough  on  the  other  side 
to  compel  them.  Civilization  has  advanced  so  far 
that,  instead  of  blows  there  are  arguments  in 
court,  instead  of  bullets  there  are  ballots  at  the 
polls ;  but  the  blows  and  the  bullets  must  always 
be  ready,  in  case  the  arguments  and  the  ballots 
are  unheeded.  The  physical  strength  that  was 
given  to  man  to  use,  like  every  other  gift,  for  the 
good  of  the  race,  he  is  so  using  when  he  holds  it 
as  a  dernier  ressort  for  law  and  order. 

Dr.  Jacobi  says,  in  her  address, "  capacity  to  bear 
arms,  in  fulfilment  of  military  duty,  is  not,  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  reckoned  among  the  necessary 
qualifications  of  voters."  The  statement  is  also 
made  by  other  Suffragists  that  "  numerous  classes 
of  men  who  enjoy  political  rights  are  exempt  from 
military  duty, — all  men  over  forty-five,  all  who 
suffer  mental  or  physical  disability,  such  as  the 
loss  of  an  eye  or  a  forefinger ;  clergymen,  physi- 
cians, Quakers,  school-teachers,  professors,  and 
presidents  of  colleges,  judges,  legislators,  congress- 
men, state-prison  officials,  and  all  county,  State, 
and  National  officers ;  fathers,  brothers,  or  sons 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  59 

having  certain  relatives  dependent  upon  them  for 
support,  all  of  these  summed  up  in  every  State 
would  make  millions  who  may  be  exempted,  and 
therefore  there  is  no  force  in  the  plea  that  if 
women  vote  they  must  fight."  It  is  not  true  that 
any  class  of  voters  is  exempt.  The  State,  regu- 
lating that  matter  as  it  regulates  the  age  and 
residence  of  voters,  as  long  as  it  has  more  de- 
fenders than  it  needs  for  immediate  use,  makes 
demand  upon  the  youngest  or  strongest,  but  if  it 
needs  them  all,  then  all  must  serve.  Again,  all, 
whether  young  or  old,  perfect  or  imperfect,  must 
be  reckoned  with  as  elements  in  making  up  the 
count.  Lawless  men  do  not  exempt  themselves 
from  riot  and  rebellion  because  they  are  lame  or 
over  forty-five.  In  the  South,  during  the  Rebel- 
lion, there  were  few  indeed  who  did  not  serve  in 
some  capacity.  If  there  were  blind  and  aged  men 
enough  to  make  a  real  difference  in  majorities, 
Americans  would  quickly  see  the  propriety  of  do- 
ing as  some  republics  that  have  to  stand  with  arms 
more  "  at  attention  "  have  done,  and  exclude  them 
from  the  vote. 

But,  suppose  all  those  mentioned  were  really 
exempt,  how  would  that  apply  to  women  ?  If  a 
like  number  were  counted  out,  there  would  still 
be  a  goodly  array,  from  the  maiden  of  twenty- 
one  to  the  matron  of  forty-five,  from  which  to 
draw.  Mrs.  Stanton  and  Miss  Anthony  write : 
"  Women  have  led  armies  in  all  ages,  have  held 
positions  in  the  army  and  navy  for  years  in  dis- 


60  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

guise,  have  fought,  bled,  and  died  on  the  battle- 
field in  our  late  war."  The  isolated  occasions  on 
which  they  have  done  so  are  not  such  as  to  com- 
mend the  practice,  neither  do  the  Suffragists  pro- 
pose seriously  to  commend  it.  Dr.  Jacobi,  in  her 
address  before  the  Committee  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention,  says :  "  We  do  not  admit  that  exemp- 
tion from  military  duty  is  a  concession  of  courtesy, 
for  which  women  should  be  so  grateful  as  to  re- 
frain from  asking  for  anything  else.  The  military 
functions  performed  by  men,  and  so  often  per- 
verted to  most  atrocious  uses,  have  never  been  more 
than  the  equivalent  for  the  function  of  child-bear- 
ing imposed  by  nature  upon  women.  It  is  not  a 
fanciful  nor  sentimental,  it  is  an  exact  and  just 
equivalent.  The  man  who  exposes  his  life  in  bat- 
tle, can  do  no  more  than  his  mother  did  in  the  hour 
she  bore  him.  And  the  functions  of  maternity 
persist,  and  will  persist,  to  the  end  of  time, — while 
the  calls  to  arms  are  becoming  so  faint  and  rare 
that  three  times  since  the  Revolutionary  War,  an 
entire  generation  of  men  has  grown  up  without 
having  heard  them." 

This  question  of  military  service  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  equivalent  at  all — sentimental  or  other- 
wise ;  it  is  a  question  of  the  actual  service,  and  as 
to  the  service  to  the  state  given  by  women  in 
bearing  sons,  the  men  work  not  only  to  support 
those  sons  but  to  support  also  their  mothers  and 
sisters,  and  that  far  beyond  the  child-bearing  age 
of  the  mother.  - 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  61 

As  to  the  rareness  of  the  calls,  I  read  of 
seven  wars  since  the  Revolution,  and  three  insur- 
rections, not  counting  the  riots  and  strikes  at 
Chicago,  Homestead,  Brooklyn,  and  in  the  mount- 
ains in  the  West.  Dr.  Jacobi  said  in  an  article 
in  the  "  New  York  Sun,"  two  years  ago,  "  We  do 
not  vote  for  war."  That  appears  like  a  quibble, 
for  we  vote  for  what  brings,  or  may  bring  it ; 
but  neither  is  it  exact  in  fact.  Three  times,  at 
least,  in  our  history  men  have  deposited  their  bal- 
lots in  the  box,  knowing  that  the  result  meant 
peace  or  war.  These  were  at  the  second  election 
of  Madison  in  1812,  the  election  of  Polk  in  1844, 
and  that  most  solemn  of  all  the  acts  of  our  coun- 
try-men, the  second  election  of  President  Lincoln. 
There  have  been  other  elections  in  which  war 
issues  werelinked  with  the  decisions,  but  in  a  less 
direct  way. 

The  same  writer  says  also,  "  The  will  of  the 
majority  rules,  for  the  time  being,  not,  as  has  been 
crudely  asserted,  because  it  possesses  the  power, 
by  brute  force,  to  compel  the  minority  to  obey  its 
behests ;  but  because,  after  ages  of  strife,  it  has 
been  found  more  convenient,  more  equitable, 
more  conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  state,  that 
the  minority  should  submit,  until,  through  argu- 
ment and  persuasion,  they  shall  have  been  able  to 
win  over  the  majority.  Now  that  this  stage  in  the 
evolution  of  modern  society  has  been  reached,  it 
has  become  possible  for  women  to  demand  their 
share  also  in  the  expression  of  the  public  opinion 


62  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

that  is  to  rule.  They  could  not  claim  this  while 
it  was  necessary  to  defend  opinions  by  arms ; 
but  this  is  no  longer  either  necessary  or  expected." 
How  long  is  it  since  this  comfortable  state 
of  things  was  evolved  ?  Has  England  consented 
to  it?  In  view  of  Yenezuela  and  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  her.  Has 
Spain  mentioned  her  resignation  of  a  right  to 
appeal  to  arms  in  case  she  was  not  pleased  with 
the  conduct  of  our  Government  in  regard  to  Cuba  ? 
Does  the  Sultan  know  about  it,  so  that  in  case  we 
see  a  good  fair  fighting  chance  to  help  the  Arme- 
nians he  will  understand  that  the  ages  of  strife 
are  over,  and  that  persuasion  has  been  found 
more  equitable  and  convenient  than  a  resort  to 
arms?  And  the  Czar,  and  the  erratic  German 
Emperor,  are  they  in  the  evolutionary  agreement  ? 
Force  is  just  what  men  are  able  to  make  it.  It  is 
not  brutish  unless  it  is  brutishly  used.  There  is 
as  much  force  in  the  world  to-day  as  there  ever 
has  been,  but  it  is  better  applied.  It  is  the  object 
of  a  Christian  civilization  to  persuade  more  and 
more  men  to  come  to  the  defence  of  good  against 
evil  in  forms  of  government.  Despotism  and 
absolutism  are  corrupt  uses  of  force.  Republi- 
canism and  a  constitutional  government  are  its 
nobler  uses.  But  the  force  is  still  behind  them,  or 
there  would  be  no  power  to  continue  such  liberal 
forms.  During  the  first  Republic,  Marathon  and 
Thermopylae  saved  the  principle  of  Western  de- 
mocracy against  Oriental  despotism,  Salamis  and 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  63 

Plataea  saved  Greek  letters  and  Greek  art  to  the 
continents  that  were  yet  to  be.  Christianity 
changed  the  motive  but  not  the  method  in  evolu- 
tion; and,  finally  in  the  last  great  Republic, 
the  American  Revolution  proclaimed  liberty  of 
thought,  the  war  of  1812  secured  American  inde- 
pendence, while,  beside  the  wandering  Antietam 
and  on  the  field  of  Gettysburg  "  green  regiments 
went  to  their  graves  like  beds  "  that  the  Union 
might  live,  and  that  human  slavery  might  die. 
Manhood  force,  led  by  intelligence  and  goodness, 
is  the  bulwark  of  that  maternity  that  must  persist 
if  heroes  are  to  be.  Dr.  Jacobi's  admission  that 
women  could  not  claim  the  vote  while  it  was 
necessary  to  defend  opinions  by  arms,  is  a  vital 
one,  for  it  contravenes  her  entire  argument. 

Another  plea  of  the  Suffrage  leaders  is  that 
"men  send  substitutes,  and  so  could  women." 
The  answer  in  regard  to  exempt  classes  will  apply 
here  also,  because  in  case  of  need  both  substitute 
and  substituter  are  obliged  to  serve.  During  our 
Civil  War  the  fact  that  a  man  had  sent  a  substi- 
tute did  not  prevent  him  from  being  called  in  the 
next  draft.  The  state  claims  both  men  as  its 
defenders.  But  whom  do  the  women  propose  to 
substitute  ?  Other  women  ?  No,  they  propose 
to  substitute  men !  The  Suffragists  seriously 
suggest  that  half  the  population,  exempted  by 
nature  from  military  duty,  shall  become  organic 
members  of  a  government  whose  reliance,  em- 
bodied in  every  constitution,  is  upon  the  ability 


64  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

and  the  willingness  of  its  organic  members  to  do 
military  duty  in  defence  of  those  constitutions, 
and  that  this  exempted  half  may  have  it  as  their 
sole  office,  in  case  of  war,  to  vote  when  and  where 
the  lives,  the  fortunes,  and  the  sacred  honor  of 
those  other  organic  members  shall  be  laid  down 
or  imperilled.  Suffragists  seem  to  forget,  when 
they  boast  of  Joan  of  Arc,  that  the  army  she  led 
was  masculine. 

The  English  socialist,  Mrs.  Stanton  Blatch, 
daughter  of  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  in  her  ad- 
dresses in  this  country  two  years  ago,  said : 
"  Woman  is  not  protected  through  chivalry,  but 
because  the  men  know  that  to  put  women  to  the 
front  is  national  suicide.  Woman's  part  in  war 
is  not  to  wail  or  weep,  but  to  furnish  the  army 
for  the  future."  Then  there  is  to  be  an  army  for 
the  future!  Was  there  no  "national  suicide" 
when  over  three  million  men  were  "  put  to  the 
front "  in  the  Kebellion,  and  more  than  five  hun- 
dred thousand,  North  and  South,  laid  down  their 
lives,  so  that  through  the  veins  of  this  generation 
runs  none  of  the  gallant  blood  they  spilled  ? 
Shall  the  fathers,  and  possible  fathers,  be  the  only 
ones  to  die,  if  the  mothers  and  betrothed  proclaim 
themselves  no  longer  desirous  of  being  protected 
by  such  high  sacrifice  ?  If  women  cease  to  "  weep 
and  wail,"  will  men  not  cease  to  be  willing  to  bo 
"  furnished  by  them  to  the  army  ? " 

"  At  any  cost  one  good  is  cheap — 
The  soldiers  die  lest  women  weep  ; 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  65 

And  this  reward  is  great  and  high — 
The  women  weep  that  soldiers  die." 

Women  and  soldiers  cannot  transpose  their  work. 
The  duty  of  each  to  the  Republic  is  equally  "  great 
and  high ; "  but  in  order  to  be  done  it  must  be 
kept  distinct  as  now. 

But  all  this  is  subordinate  to  the  real,  vital 
question.  In  the  passages  just  quoted,  the  writers 
make  an  error  that  is  made  so  persistently  by  all 
Suffragists  whenever  the  argument  of  force  is 
alluded  to,  that  it  seems  necessary  to  repeat  the 
explanation.  They  assume  that  this  argument, 
briefly  stated,  is  :  The  men  do  the  fighting,  there- 
fore they  ought  to  be  rewarded  with  the  ballot. 
That  is  not  the  argument ;  it  is  no  matter  of  re- 
ward. The  argument,  briefly  stated,  is  this: 
Stability  is  one  of  the  highest  virtues  that  any 
government  can  possess,  and  perhaps  the  most 
necessary.  It  can  have  no  stability  if  it  issues 
decrees  that  it  cannot  enforce.  •  The  only  way  to 
avoid  such  decrees  is,  to  make  sure  that  behind 
every  law  and  every  policy  adopted  stands  a 
power  so  great  that  no  power  in  the  land  can 
overthrow  it.  The  only  such  power  possible  con- 
sists of  a  majority  of  the  men.  Therefore,  the 
only  safe  thing  for  the  Government  to  do  is,  to 
carry  out  the  ascertained  will  of  a  majority  of  the 
men.  This  does  not  always  secure  ideally  good 
laws,  but  it  does  secure  stability  and  avoids  revolu- 
tion. The  majority  may  blunder ;  but  they  are 
the  only  power  that  can  correct  their  own  blunders. 
5/ 


66  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

But  war  does  not  call  for  the  only  form  of 
public  service.  There  are  others  provided  for  in 
the  National  and  State  constitutions,  which  are 
constant  and  exacting.  They  are  jury,  police 
and  militia  duty.  When  a  boy  reaches  twenty- 
one  the  law  says  to  him,  "  You  are  my  servant." 
If  a  fire  breaks  out,  the  foreman  can  legally  lay 
his  hand  on  the  boy's  shoulder,  and  say,  "  Help 
to  put  out  this  conflagration."  When  the  law  is 
broken,  the  sheriff  can  say  to  him,  "  Help  me 
make  this  arrest."  When  a  turn  of  the  judicial 
wheel  brings  out  his  name,  he  must  serve  the 
state  on  a  jury ;  if  a  riot  occurs,  he  can  be  called 
out  to  quell  it ;  and  if  a  war  arises,  he  can  be 
drafted  to  fight  against  the  country's  enemies. 
There  is  not  a  single  act  of  defence  to  which  the 
voter  was  subjected  by  law  when  the  Constitution 
was  framed,  to  which  he  is  not  subject  now,  and 
subject  because  he  is  a  voter.  The  vote  is  not 
given  to  him  as  a  reward  for  standing  ready  to 
give  this  service  to  the  state ;  it  is  a  recognition 
by  the  state  that,  as  he  must  stand  ready  to  de- 
fend it,  he  should  assist  in  establishing  the  laws 
which  it  may  call  upon  him  to  enforce.  As  he 
has  assisted  to  frame  them,  he  cannot  refuse  to 
defend  them.  Woman's  only  relation  to  this  de- 
fence is  that  of  beneficiary,  and  therefore  her  re- 
lation to  the  laws  with  which  that  defence  is  as- 
sociated must  be  one  of  advice  and  not  of  control. 
Fortunately  for  her,  advice  may  prove  sometimes 
to  be  control  of  the  most  satisfactory  kind,  a  kind 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  67 

that  admits  of  mental  power  and  does  not  exact 
physical. 

The  statement  is  further  made  by  Suffragists 
that  "  though  woman  needs  the  protection  of  one 
man  against  his  whole  sex,  in  pioneer  life,  in 
threading  her  way  through  a  lonely  forest,  on  the 
highway,  or  in  the  streets  of  a  metropolis  on  a 
dark  night,  she  sometimes  needs,  too,  the  protec- 
tion of  all  men  against  this  one.  But  even  if  she 
could  be  sure,  as  she  is  not,  of  the  ever-present, 
all-protecting  power  of  one  strong  arm,  that 
would  be  weak  indeed  compared  with  the  subtle, 
all-pervading  influence  of  just  and  equal  laws  for 
all  women.  Hence  woman's  need  of  the  ballot, 
that  she  may  hold  in  her  own  right  hand  the 
weapon  of  self-protection  and  defence."  The 
possession  of  the  ballot  has  not  been  able  to  secure 
for  men  "  the  subtle  and  all-pervading  influence 
of  just  and  equal  laws,"  and  despite  his  holding 
the  ballot  in  his  own  hand,  man  has  had  to  hold 
also  a  more  apparent  weapon  if  he  visit  a  striker's 
camp  or  meddle  with  an  anarchist  riot.  Some- 
thing more  tangible  than  protective  influence  is 
needed  to  make  the  public  streets  of  this  city  safe 
for  women  in  broad  daylight.  Again,  they  say 
that  "  Wisdom  would  suggest  division  of  labor  in 
peace  as  well  as  in  war."  Wisdom  would  have 
no  chance  to  make  such  a  suggestion,  if  women 
attempted  to  do  the  same  work  as  do  men,  in  the 
same  way.  There  is  true  division  of  labor  now, 
in  peace  as  well  as  in  war. 


68  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Suffragists  mention  as  a  final  indignity  the  ex- 
tension of  the  suffrage  to  the  negro.  Their  pro- 
test only  serves  to  suggest  another  forcible  illus- 
tration of  the  fact  that  law  and  the  enforcement 
of  law  may  be  different  things.  The  suffrage  is 
not  extended  to  the  negro.  The  Congress  of  the 
United  States  voted  that  it  should  be  so  extended ; 
and  while  the  Government  stood  behind  his  vote 
with  its  military  power,  the  negro  voted.  But  no 
one  pretends  that  he  has  done  so,  to  any  prac- 
tical extent,  since  that  time.  Unarmed,  the 
negro  finds  that  he  cannot  enforce  his  own  vote 
against  the  will  of  white  men  armed  to  the  teeth. 
The  "  all-pervading  influence  of  just  and  equal 
laws "  cannot  enforce  it  for  him.  Would  the 
women  be  any  better  off,  if  the  men  chose  that 
they  should  not  exercise  the  vote  ?  "Who  would 
enforce  it  ? 

This  fact  and  argument  show  how  little  arbitra- 
tion has  to  do  with  the  practical  decision  concern- 
ing suffrage.  Suffrage  writers  and  speakers  harp 
upon  the  thought  that  arbitration  will  take  the 
place  of  force.  That  method  of  settling  disputes 
cannot  come  too  quickly,  but  it  has  not  come  yet. 
It  has  no  real  bearing  on  the  organization  of  the 
state  as  resting  upon  the  civil  and  military  service 
of  its  citizens.  England  consented  to  arbitrate 
with  the  powerful  United  States,  but  refused  to 
arbitrate  with  defenceless  Nicaragua  in  a  far  less 
important  matter.  Congress  has  seriously  con- 
sidered exterminating  the  remnant  of  the  beauti- 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  69 

ful  herd  of  seals  that  once  played  in  our  Northern 
Pacific  waters,  because  British  subjects  have  con- 
tinued, in  violation  of  the  Arbitration  treaty,  to 
kill  the  animals  with  cruelty.  Behind  arbitra- 
tion, as  behind  all  law  and  order,  military  power 
must  always  stand  and  must  sometimes  be  used. 
One  more  proof  that  the  vote  is  not  the  real 
power,  but  only  its  insignia,  lies  in  the  fact  that 
legislation  has  not  been  able  to  put  an  end  to 
strikes  and  riots.  Laws  that  forbid  them  are 
passed  Avith  all  due  form  ;  but  when  they  come, 
as  come  they  do,  the  reading  of  the  riot  act  is  sus- 
pended and  the  regiments  are  ordered  to  Chicago, 
or  Buffalo,  or  Brooklyn,  or  Homestead,  or  Cripple 
Creek,  or  Cleveland,  or  the  Indian  country.  The 
force  of  those  bodies  was  not  "  brutal,"  it  was 
physical  power  obeying  mental ;  and  unless  men- 
tal power  can  command  physical,  there  is  no  way 
in  which  mental  power  can  enforce  its  decrees  in 
government.  There  are  now  facing  us  tremen- 
dous moral  issues,  which  presage  tremendous 
struggles  ;  and  a  very  notable  example  of  the  dan- 
gers that  would  attend  woman  suffrage  is  sug- 
gested by  them.  If  women  had  the  power  to 
create  a  numerical  majority  when  there  was  a 
majority  of  the  law's  natural  and  only  defenders 
against  them,  they  might  soon  precipitate  a  crisis 
that  would  lead  to  bloodshed,  which  they  would 
be  powerless  either  to  prevent  or  to  allay.  "Would 
the  majority  of  men  submit  to  the  minority  of 
men  associated  with  non-combatants  ?  American 


70  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

history  furnishes  no  reason  for  supposing  that 
they  would.  The  Dorr  War  in  Rhode  Island  is  a 
case  in  point,  in  local  matters.  I  am  neither  an 
alarmist  nor  a  believer  in  war  as  a  panacea  ;  but 
if  we  discuss  this  subject  at  all,  we  must  dis- 
cuss it  with  facts  and  not  fancies  in  our  minds. 

Dr.  Jacobi  again  says,  in  her  book  :  "  It  may 
be  said,  for  it  has  been  said,  that  the  objection  to 
seeing  a  vote  of  seven  hundred  men  overcome  by 
a  coalition  of  three  hundred  men  with  eight  hun- 
dred women,  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  defeated 
minority  knows,  if  it  had  a  free  hand  and  was  al- 
lowed to  use  fisticuffs,  it  could  pound  into  a  jelly 
a  majority  composed  so  largely  of  women.  It 
would  feel,  therefore,  sullen,  restive,  and  justly 
indignant,  that  it  should  be  prohibited  from  using 
this  power  and  obliged  to  submit  to  a  merely  nom- 
inal force  and  supremacy." 

The  objection  to  seeing  seven  hundred  men  de- 
feated by  a  coalition  of  three  hundred  men  with 
eight  hundred  women,  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  de- 
feated minority  knows  that  it  has  a  free  hand,  and 
that  nothing  less  than  eight  hundred  men  could 
prevent  it  from  using  its  physical  power,  were  it 
so  inclined.  Only  a  force  and  supremacy  that  was 
real,  and  not  nominal,  could  make  it  to  submit. 
The  rhetorical  trick  of  belittling  the  matter  by 
speaking  of  it  as  "  fisticuffs  "  will  not  pass  in  this 
discussion.  "When  the  South  Carolina  negroes  on 
election  day  looked  into  the  rifle-barrels  of  the 
Red-shirt  clubs,  it  was  no  matter  of  fisticuffs. 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  71 

When  every  statesman  in  our  country  was  eagerly 
seeking  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  Hayes-Tilden  dis- 
pute, it  was  not  fisticuffs  that  they  feared.  When 
the  Dostie  convention  was  broken  up  and  its 
leaders  murdered  in  New  Orleans,  it  was  not  by 
means  of  fisticuffs.  When  the  Chicago  anarchists 
threw  their  bomb  into  the  ranks  of  the  policemen 
in  Hay  market  Square,  they  were  not  playing  at 
fisticuffs.  When  the  rail  way  strikers  in  Pittsburg 
stopped  the  trains,  "  killed  "  the  locomotives,  and 
burned  the  freight,  there  was  no  fisticuffs  about 
it.  And  when  a  Southern  minority  refused  to 
abide  by  the  result  of  the  election  of  1860,  and 
the  Northern  majority  shouldered  muskets  and 
went  down  and  compelled  them  to,  not  the  most 
flippant  writer  would  have  thought  of  calling  it 
fisticuffs.  All  these  are  simply  readily  recalled 
instances  of  the  necessity  for  power  in  the  en- 
forcement of  law. 

She  goes  on  to  say :  "But  is  it  only  in  such  a 
hypothetical  case  that  a  minority  would  know  it 
could,  if  allowed  to  resort  to  physical  force,  shiver 
to  fragments  the  majority  ?  The  burly  brakemen 
in  railroad  strikes  would,  probably,  in  a  fair  hand- 
to-hand  encounter,  be  much  bested  over  all  the 
stockholders  of  the  road, — weakened,  not  only 
because  they  included  women  in  their  midst,  but 
also  by  sedentary  habits  and  predominately  indoor 
occupations.  Why  do  they  not  try  this  way  of 
settling  their  difficulties  ?  Why  do  not  the  classes 
in  England,  who  still  remain  entirely  disfran- 


72  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

chised,  and  with  whom  rests  so  much  physical 
strength,  drop  their  fists  into  the  balance  as 
Brennus  did  his  sword,  and  cut  short  the  futile, 
womanish  discussion  ?  The  answer  is  ready  in 
every  one's  mouth.  It  is  not  that  it  cannot 
be  done,  but  that,  on  the  whole,  people  are 
all  agreed  that  it  is  best  it  should  not  be  done. 
It  is  not  that  physical  force  is  respected  less, 
but  that  mental  force  is  respected  more." 

A 

I  reply  that  both  these  things  have  been  at- 
tempted over  and  over  again,  and  the  agreement 
of  all  the  wise  and  good  people  that  it  is  best  that 
it  should  not  be  done  cannot  prevent  it.  Behind 
the  burly  brakemen  who  have  seized  the  train, 
and  the  stockholders  to  whom  it  lawfully  belongs, 
there  lies  a  power  greater  than  all  the  brakemen 
and  stockholders  together.  We  call  it  the  power 
of  law.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  power  of  a  sovereign 
people,  who,  having  made  that  law,  are  able  to 
enforce  it  against  the  breakers  of  it.  It  is  nec- 
essary, in  the  discussion  of  this  point,  to  have 
clearly  in  mind  the  difference  between  sovereign 
power  and  delegated  power.  When  a  member  of 
a  stock  company  attends  the  annual  meeting  and 
casts  one  vote  for  every  share  that  he  holds,  he 
is  exercising  delegated  power.  The  sovereign 
people,  acting  through  their  representatives  in  the 
legislature,  have  delegated  to  the  company  the 
power  to  regulate  its  affairs  in  this  way,  and 
guaranteed  to  each  shareholder  this  privilege. 
Should  a  combination  of  some  of  the  shareholders 


THE  AMERICA  N  EEP  UBLIC.  73 

attempt  to  prevent  one  from  exercising  it,  he 
would  appeal  to  the  court,  and  behind  the  court 
stands  the  power  of  the  people,  many  times  larger 
than  any  stock  company  that  exists.  On  the 
other  hand,  when  men  go  to  the  polls  on  election 
day,  they  exercise,  not  delegated,  but  sovereign, 
power.  There  is  no  greater  power,  above  and  be- 
yond themselves,  to  regulate  their  actions.  The 
enfranchised  classes  in  England  do  drop  their  fists 
into  the  balance,  and,  as  a  result,  we  have  seen 
the  extensions  of  suffrage  that  marked  the  years 
1832  and  1848,  and  the  reason  some  classes  are 
still  unfranchised  is,  that  the  monarchy  that  wills 
their  unfranchisement  has,  as  yet,  more  power  at 
command  than  those  who  would  enfranchise  them. 
Mental  and  moral  force  is  more  respected  with 
every  rolling  year,  because  those  who  respect  it 
have  been  able  to  obtain  control  of  the  physical 
power  that  can  force  its  decrees  upon  those  who 
do  not  respect  it. 

The  third  count  in  the  indictment  is  :  "  Having 
deprived  her  of  the  first  right  of  a  citizen,  the 
elective  franchise,  thereby  leaving  her  without 
representation  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  he  has 
oppressed  her  on  all  sides."  As,  in  securing  the 
exact  number  of  grievances  mentioned  by  the 
Fathers,  the  Mothers  were  compelled  to  string 
out  their  distresses  somewhat,  I  will  quote  the 
next  count  in  the  indictment,  and  consider  these 
two  together.  "  After  depriving  her  of  all  rights 
as  a  married  woman,  if  single,  and  the  owner  of 


74  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

property,  he  has  taxed  her  to  support  a  govern- 
ment which  recognized  her  only  when  her  prop- 
erty could  be  made  profitable  to  it." 

The  many-sided  oppression,  and  the  deprivation 
as  a  married  woman,  belong  in  other  chapters. 
The  remaining  portions  of  the  two  counts  may 
be  summed  up  under  the  familiar  cry  :  "  No  tax- 
ation without  representation."  "What  did  that 
just  accusation  mean  when  our  fathers  uttered  it 
in  regard  to  English  tyranny  ?  Did  they  mean 
that  their  property  was  taxed,  and  they  had  no 
redress  ?  The  phrase  originated  with  Patrick 
Henry,  who  read  to  the  Virginia  House  of  Bur- 
gesses the  decision  gleaned  from  a  study  of  "  Coke 
upon  Lyttleton,"  that  "Englishmen  living  in 
America  had  all  the  rights  of  Englishmen  living 
in  England,  the  chief  of  which  was,  that  they 
could  only  be  taxed  by  their  own  representatives," 
and  on  that  was  founded  the  resolution  adopted 
by  them  that  the  colonies  could  not  be  lawfully 
taxed  in  a  body  in  which  they  were  not  repre- 
sented ;  for  the  colonies,  as  well  as  individuals, 
had  no  vote  in  Parliament.  They  meant  that  their 
property  could  not  be  so  taxed,  and  they  meant 
far  more.  The  more  that  they  meant  was  em- 
bodied by  Jefferson  in  the  first  draft  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  when  he  said :  "  Can 
any  one  reason  be  assigned  why  a  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  electors  in  the  island  of  Great 
Britain  should  give  law  to  four  million  in  the 
States  of  America  ? "  John  Hancock  meant  that 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  75 

and  more  when  he  said :  "  Burn  Boston  and 
make  John  Hancock  a  beggar,  if  the  public  good 
requires  it."  He  was  offering  his  taxed  property 
to  defend  the  liberties  of  the  four  millions  against 
the  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  electors.  The 
refusal  of  the  majority  to  be  ruled  longer  by  the 
minority  was  the  main  motive  of  determination 
not  to  submit.  But  at  that  time  all  voting  was 
connected  with  a  tax  on  property,  and  so  was  the 
suffrage  established  by  these  men.  And  under 
those  property-tax  laws  women  who  held  prop- 
erty could  vote.  It  was  when  taxation  ceased  to 
go  with  representation,  that  the  women  ceased  to 
vote.  There  is  now  no  connection  between  taxa- 
tion of  property  and  representation.  When 
people  were  allowed  votes  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  property  they  held,  and  could  vote  in 
different  counties  and  States,  there  was  a  connec- 
tion, and  that  law  gave  the  rich  man  more  voting 
power  than  the  poor  man.  But  all  aristocratic 
qualification  was  done  away  with,  and  the  govern- 
ment came  to  rely  solely  on  the  strength  of  indi- 
vidual men  for  its  defence,  instead  of  upon  men 
and  women  with  money  enough  to  raise  soldiery. 
There  is  a  money  tax  levied  on  the  property  of 
men  and  women  alike ;  and  in  return  for  the  pay- 
ment of  this  tax  the  property  of  both  men  and 
women  is  made  secure  against  unlawful  injury. 
In  order  to  make  it  secure,  the  state  lays,  upon 
men  alone,  a  service  tax,  and  with  that  tax  goes 
representation,  or  the  vote.  This  service  tax  does 


76  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

not  fall  upon  woman,  and  it  cannot  be  demanded 
of  her  ;  so  it  is  not  true  that  "  Man  has  ta£ed  her 
to  support  a  government  which  recognizes  her 
only  when  her  property  can  be  made  profitable 
to  it."  He  has,  in  return  for  the  money  tax,  so 
guarded  her  property  through  the  service  tax  on 
men  that  it  is  of  profit  to  her,  which  without  that 
guard  it  could  not  be. 

The  tax  on  property  is  collected  from  that  of 
minors  and  unnaturalized  citizens,  resident  or 
non-resident,  and  to  all  these  classes,  as  well  as  to 
non-voting  women,  is  given  the  right  of  petition 
and  legal  redress  of  whatever  sort.  The  men 
do  not  have  "  equal  rights  "  in  regard  to  public 
control  of  their  taxable  property,  if  equal  rights 
means  that  each  man  shall  be  able  to  say  what 
shall  be  done  to,  or  with,  or  about,  the  property 
on  which  he  pays  taxes.  The  penniless  voter  can 
have  as  much  to  say  as  to  whether  a  railroad  shall 
cross  the  lands  of  a  millionaire  as  the  millionaire 
himself.  At  every  town  election  the  minority 
are  unheeded,  so  far  as  the  vote  goes,  and  women 
with  property  interests  would  be  no  better  off  if 
they  secured  votes  in  the  only  way  they  can  be 
secured — one  voice,  one  vote. 

Lydia  Maria  Child  said,  in  a  letter  reprinted  in 
the  Woman's  edition  of  "  The  Rochester  Post-Ex- 
press "  in  1896 :  "  I  reduce  the  argument  to  very 
simple  elements.  I  pay  taxes  for  property  of  my 
own  earning  and  saving,  and  I  do  not  believe  in 
taxation  without  representation.  As  for  repre- 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  77 

sentation  by  proxy,  that  savors  too  much  of  the 
plantation  system,  however  kind  the  master  may 
be.  I  am  a  human  being,  and  every  human  being 
has  a  right  to  a  voice  in  the  laws  which  claim  au- 
thority to  tax  him,  to  imprison  him,  or  to  hang 
him." 

Not  only  has  every  human  being  in  the  United 
States  a  right  to  a  voice  in  the  laws  that  claim 
authority  to  tax  him,  imprison  him,  or  hang  him, 
but  he  can  exercise  that  right  in  all  portions  of 
the  United  States  where  the  laws  that  claim  this 
authority  are  able  to  enlist  sufficient  physical 
force  to  execute  the  authority  claimed.  Where 
they  have  not  that  power,  neither  the  voter  nor 
the  non-voter  has  any  redress  against  violence 
offered  to  property  or  limb  or  life.  Gerryman- 
ders and  lynchings  in  many  parts  of  our  land  prove 
the  truth  of  this.  The  mastery  of  men  who  abide 
by  and  execute  law  is  not  a  mastery  over  women 
for  the  sake  of  the  spoils  of  taxation  or  the  dis- 
posal of  life,  but  the  mastery  over  lawlessness 
everywhere  in  order  that  tax-payers  of  either  sex, 
native  or  alien,  voters  or  non-voters,  may  be  en- 
abled to  have  that  voice  in  the  laws  which,  as 
human  beings,  is  their  right.  As  to  the  "  vote  by 
proxy,"  if  Mrs.  Child  could  not  trust  her  husband, 
her  son,  her  brother,  or  best  friend  to  look  after 
her  interests,  she  certainly  could  not  trust  the  car- 
rying out  of  her  Avish,  as  expressed  in  her  vote, 
to  the  men  who  cast  in  their  ballots  by  her  side. 

In  return  for  the  taxes  paid,  women  get  just  what 


78  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

men  get, — namely,  roads,  gas,  water,  schools,  etc. 
The  women  who  have  refused  to  pay  their  taxes 
because  they  did  not  vote,  have  been  treated  with 
a  leniency  that  proves  the  courtesy  of  the  law-en- 
forcers. They  would  have  made  short  work  with 
men  who  were  non-voters,  who  had  tried  the  same 
tactics.  "When  a  man's  vote  is  challenged  and  re- 
fused, he  does  not  dream  of  saying :  "  I  shall  not 
pay  my  tax,"  and  the  assessor  never  inquires 
whether  he  votes  or  desires  to  vote.  The  men  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  do  not  find  their  un- 
f ranchised  condition  assuaged  by  the  smallness  of 
their  account  with  the  assessor.  Neither  do  they 
realize  or  believe  that  they  are  governed  without 
their  consent,  or  exempt  from  police  or  military 
duty.  This  is  a  striking  proof  that  the  vote  is  not 
a  reward  for  service.  They  are  male  American 
citizens,  over  twenty-one  years  old,  and  they  must 
contribute  service  simply  and  solely  for  that  rea- 
son. This  is  the  price  they  pay  for  established 
order. 

For,  after  all,  what  is  government,  and  what 
are  taxation  and  representation  ?  When  and  how 
did  society  consent  to  be  governed  ?  When  did  it 
agree  to  be  taxed  and  to  be  represented  ?  The 
awful  story  of  history,  from  the  slaying  of  Abel 
to  the  slaughter  of  half  a  million  men  in  the  War 
of  Secession,  is  the  answer.  It  never  did  agree,  it 
has  not  yet  agreed.  The  struggle  of  civilization 
is  the  effort  to  make  it  agree.  Implanted  in  the 
bosom  of  man  by  his  Maker  is  the  belief  in  his 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  79 

individual  freedom,  of  worship  as  concerns  that 
Maker,  of  protection  as  concerns  man.  Side  by- 
side  with  that,  was  implanted  the  principle  of  sur- 
render of  a  part  of  that  freedom  for  just  cause. 
There  came  a  time  when  men  said :  "  Let  us  use 
arguments  instead  of  force  in  these  decisions," 
and  some  form  of  vote  was  instituted.  With  this 
they  fought  and  voted  by  turns,  as  they  set  up 
or  knocked  down  emperors,  kings,  popes,  and 
presidents.  War  has  been  changed  by  progress 
because  man  has  changed  ;  but  main  strength  to 
drive  home  the  truths  gained  on  the  moral  battle- 
field is  still  the  power  behind  the  throne  of  the 
National  conscience,  even  in  this  enlightened 
land. 

Though  the  Mothers  of  the  Eebellion  did  not 
ask,  and  apparently  did  not  think  of  asking,  to 
share  the  military  duties  incident  to  suffrage,  we 
must  discuss  it,  if  we  are  to  consider  the  subject 
thoroughly.  To  be  a  voting  citizen,  is  to  be  a 
possible  soldier  citizen.  There  is  no  way  of  ful- 
filling the  moral  part  of  the  duty,  and  leaving  un- 
fulfilled the  physical,  and  it  is  cowardly  to  at- 
tempt it.  So  the  question  comes,  could  American 
women  be  soldiers  ?  They  could,  for  a  few  in  dis- 
guise were  in  service  during  the  War  of  Seces- 
sion. Titled  women  of  Europe  are  honorary 
officers;  but  this  playing  soldier  is  a  relic  of 
Middle-Age  chivalry.  Women  can  be  seriously 
destructive  ;  but  no  one  will  claim  that  organized 
military  duty  is  really  practicable  for  them. 


80  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

And  the  suffrage  proposition  does  not  look  to 
anything  of  the  kind.  The  Suffragists  demand 
equal  vote  in  sending  their  fathers,  brothers, 
sons,  husbands,  and  lovers  to  the  military  field 
of  action,  and  propose  to  be  absolutely  exempt 
from  equal  share  in  the  duty  that  that  vote  now 
lays  upon  male  voters.  Before  the  law  there 
could  be  no  distinction  ©f  duty  on  account  of  race, 
sex,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude.  The 
"  emancipated  "  woman  would  be  emancipated 
into  that  which  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
expressly  called  for,  "  the  right  and  privilege  of 
the  people  to  bear  arms." 

The  constitution  of  Utah  says  that  the  State 
militia  is  to  consist  of  "  able-bodied  males,"  and  I 
have  not  yet  heard  that  the  women  who  vote 
there  have  insisted  that  the  word  "  male "  be 
struck  out  of  that  clause  of  the  Constitution.  By 
no  means,  every  woman  expects  to  be  exempt. 
After  women  had  succeeded  in  getting  the  fram- 
ers  of  the  constitution  of  every  State  to  strike  out 
the  word  "  male,"  from  its  voting  qualification, 
they  would  expect  them  to  insert  the  word  "  male  " 
in  mentioning  the  service  qualification.  O  Equal- 
ity, where  is  thine  equal  for  granting  privilege ! 
Such  chivalry,  it  would  seem,  is  an  insult  to  the 
power  and  intelligence  of  the  women  of  Utah, 
who  celebrated  their  "enfranchisement"  by  a 
convention  to  favor  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  16 
to  1,  and  whose  behavior  on  that  occasion  was,  to 
say  the  least,  boyish.  The  tax  upon  time  and 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  81 

strength,  and  the  money  loss  of  citizen  service, 
Suffrage  leaders  did  not  once  allude  to.  They  did 
not,  and  do  not,  propose  to  pay  even  a  double 
money  tax  on  account  of  expected  exemption. 
Little  as  this  would  have  availed  to  meet  the 
actual  situation,  it  would  have  shown  their  good 
will,  and  some  comprehension  of  justice,  while 
they  talked  of  an  absurd  and  intangible  "  right." 
But,  it  might  be  said,  "  Utah  did  insert  such  a 
clause  into  her  constitution,  and  so  could  other 
States.  It  is,  after  all,  common  sense  that  rules, 
and  men  can  legislate  what  they  please."  The 
law  passed  by  Utah,  which  provided  that  "  male 
voters  must  be  tax-payers,  while  female  voters 
need  not  be,"  was  decided  to  be  unconstitutional, 
and  this  one  also  may  well  be.  At  the  end 
of  Utah's  Constitution,  as  of  every  other,  and 
of  every  bill  that  is  passed,  occurs  or  is  under- 
stood something  like  this  sentence  from  the  Uni- 
ted States  Constitution :  "  The  Congress  shall 
have  power  to  enforce  this  article  by  appropriate 
legislation."  Is  it  the  "  appropriate  legislation  " 
that  gives  to  Congress,  or  to  any  other  body,  the 
power  to  enforce  the  article  decided  upon  by  a 
majority  ?  We  know  that  it  is  not.  It  is  the 
men  who  can  enforce  it  if  it  is  disobeyed.  Every 
day  we  see  that  some  laws  are  "  dead  letters," 
not  because  the  legislation  appropriate  to  their 
enforcement  was  not  perfect,  but  because  they 
are  not  enforced.  When  Mr.  Roosevelt  became 

Chairman  of  the  Police  Commission  there  had 
6 


82  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

been  for  some  time  a  bill,  duly  legislated,  for  the  en- 
forcement of  the  Sunday  closing  of  liquor  saloons 
in  New  York  city.  But  the  saloons  had  not  been 
closed.  Mr.  Roosevelt  summoned  the  police,  and 
proceeded  to  enforce  the  law.  If  they  had  re- 
fused, the  militia  stood  behind  them.  Do  you 
say,  "  Yery  well,  if  Miss  Willard  had  been  Chair- 
man of  the  Commissioners  she  could  have  done 
the  same."  There  would  have  been  this  great 
difference.  Mr.  Roosevelt  himself  was  as  much 
subject  to  serve  at  the  call  of  the  law,  as  were  the 
policemen.  He  was  not  a  dictator  merely,  he 
was  part  and  parcel  of  the  strength  that  he  in- 
voked. The  reason  for  obedience  rested  on  the 
same  ground  in  each  case — service  in  which  each 
stood  equal.  It  is  a  specious  form  of  mistake  to 
suppose  that  "  men  can  legislate  just  what  they 
wish  to."  They  can  legislate  only  what  the 
majority  decrees,  and  they  can  legislate  effectively 
only  what  they  have  power  to  enforce.  Had  the 
saloon-keepers  refused  to  obey  Miss  Willard,  not 
she,  but  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  other  men  would  have 
had  to  enforce  the  law. 

It  is  absurd  in  itself,  and  annoying  to  Suffrage 
advocates,  to  talk  about  military  duty  for  woman. 
Her  very  nature  forbids  it.  So  it  is,  and  so  it 
does,  and  therefore  it  is  equally  absurd  to  talk 
about  her  attempting  to  assume  duties  whose  very 
nature  forbids  their  being  done  by  her.  Were 
voting  only  a  matter  of  obtaining  the  opinion  of 
women  on  matters  that  concern  the  country,  or 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  83 

concern  them  (and  all  matters  that  concern  the 
country  concern  them),  all  precedent  gathered 
from  the  treatment  of  American  women  by 
American  men  goes  to  prove  that  no  urging  would 
have  been  required  to  secure  for  them  as  large  a 
measure  of  suffrage  as  was  consistent  with  their 
duties  and  their  desires. 

In  1879  an  earnest  discussion  on  Woman  Suf- 
frage was  held  in  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts. 
Four  propositions  were  pending.  The  first  was 
that  a  constitutional  amendment  should  be  submit- 
ted to  the  people,  which,  if  accepted,  would  decree 
to  women  full  suffrage.  Thomas  Wentworth 
Higginson,  Lucy  Stone  and  "William  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison argued  the  case  for  the  women.  Col.  Hig- 
ginson said  that  if  ability  to  fight  were  made  the 
test  of  voting  "  a  large  proportion  of  men,  espe- 
cially of  professional  men,  would  be  disfranchised. 
The  report  of  the  Surgeon-General  of  the  United 
States  showed  that  of  the  thousand  clergymen 
who  volunteered  or  were  drafted  during  the  war. 
945  were  declared  to  be  unfit  for  service.  Of  the 
lawyers  who  volunteered  or  were  drafted,  650 
were  rejected,  and  of  the  physicians,  745."  He 
added,  "  You  must  go  down  to  the  mechanics  and 
laborers  before  you  can  find  a  class  of  men  a 
majority  of  whom  will  fulfil  this  requirement. 
Of  the  clergymen  who  preach  that  woman  suf- 
frage is  wrong  because  women  can  do  no  military 
duty,  only  one  twentieth  would  themselves  be 
accepted  for  such  service.  There  is  but  one  class 


84  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

of  men  better  fitted  than  mechanics  for  military 
service,  and  that  is  the  prize-fighting  class, 
and  therefore  the  constituency  which  sent 
John  Morrissey  to  Congress  was  the  only  con- 
stituency that  ever  carried  out  this  idea  to  the 
end."  Col.  Higginson,  who  played  a  gallant 
part  in  the  Civil  War,  should  have  remembered 
what  poor  fighting  material  the  country  found  in 
such  men  as  formed  the  constituency  of  John 
Morrissey.  The  regiment  of  Zouaves  raised  in 
New  York  City  by  Billy  Wilson,  the  pugilist,  was 
found  to  be  so  mischievous,  as  well  as  worthless, 
that  it  was  shipped  to  the  Dry  Tortugas  in  order  to 
rid  the  army  of  a  pest.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
of  the  most  gallant  as  well  as  most  orderly  soldiers 
came  from  dry-goods  stores  and  apothecary  shops. 
The  pugilists  and  roughs  are  the  very  ones  that 
are  good  for  nothing  as  soldiers  ;  they  belong  to 
the  class  that  makes  soldiery  necessary. 

When  Col.  Higginson  can  use  such  logic,  it  is 
no  wonder  that  women  have  repeated  the  argu- 
ment. The  question  was  not  whether,  because 
certain  men  who  were  naturally  looked  upon  by 
the  Government  as  its  defenders,  and  as  such  were 
called  upon  to  fight,  proved  physically  unable, 
but  whether  the  Government  had  a  right,  because 
of  its  very  existence,  to  call  upon  those  men,  and 
in  case  of  need,  to  say  to  them  "  Put  yourself 
into  physical  condition  for  this  service."  If  it 
had  such  a  right,  by  what  law  under  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  could  Lucy  Stone  ask 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  85 

to  vote  and  not  expect  to  have  her  military  fit- 
ness inquired  into,  and  be  asked  to  put  herself 
into  physical  condition  for  it  ? 

Recalling  the  action  of  her  grandfather,  she, 
better  than  some  other  women,  might  have  realized 
the  necessity  of  force  for  government.  Her  de- 
fiant spirit  might  well  have  descended  from  that 
ancestor  who  led  four  hundred  men  in  Shays's 
Rebellion,  when,  in  the  State  before  whose  tribunal 
she  was  speaking,  he  assisted  in  preventing  court 
sessions,  and  swelled  the  ranks  of  the  rioters  who 
were  decrying  taxes  and  calling  for  fiat  money, 
in  a  land  that  was  impoverished  and  was  strug- 
gling for  a  sound  financial  standing  after  a  war 
that  had  been  waged  to  guarantee  the  blessings 
of  freedom  to  her  and  to  her  children. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  many  of  those  men  whom 
Col.  Higginson  referred  to  as  deemed  unfit,  did  go 
into  immediate  training,  and  "  muscular  Christian- 
ity "  would  now  present  to  the  Surgeon-General 
a  different  showing.  It  was  one  of  the  surprising 
things,  in  a  statistical  way,  to  find  that  city-bred 
boys  stood  the  marching  and  exposure  of  the 
Civil  War  campaigns  better  than  their  country 
brothers,  and  that  the  j^ard-stick  turned  into  as 
effective  a  sword  as  the  pruning-hook.  Garrison, 
who  maintained  for  so  many  years  that  men  should 
not  vote  because  the  government  was  founded 
on  force,  had  the  grace  not  to  speak  on  this 
phase  of  the  question,  but  he  said  it  was  cruel  that 
women  should  be  disfranchised  and  classed  with 


86  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

paupers,  idiots,  and  criminals.  Senator  Hayes 
asked  him  if  there  was  no  "  difference  between  a 
person  who  was  disfranchised  and  one  who  never 
had  been  enfranchised  ? "  and  added  that  "  he 
could  see  no  argument  for  woman  suffrage  in  the 
proposition  that  certain  classes  of  men  were  not 
permitted  to  vote."  Neither  can  I. 

The  argument  for  woman  suffrage  which  bases 
it  upon  a  fancied  grouping  of  women  with  the 
vile  and  brainless  element  in  the  country,  appears 
to  me  to  be  at  once  the  weakest  and  the  meanest 
of  all.  When  the  United  States  Government 
invited  its  woman  citizens  to  share  in  making  the 
Columbian  Exposition  the  most  wondrous  pageant 
of  any  age,  they  responded  from  every  town  and 
hamlet  by  sending  of  their  best.  But  the  na- 
tional Suffrage  Association,  as  its  official  exhibit, 
gave  a  picture  of  the  expressive  face  of  Miss 
Wiilard  surrounded  by  ideal  heads  of  a  pauper,  an 
idiot,  and  a  criminal,  with  a  legend  recording  their 
belief  that  it  was  with  these  that  American  men 
placed  American  women.  So  false  a  picture  must 
have  taught  the  thoughtful  gazers  the  opposite 
lesson  from  the  one  intended.  It  could  have  told 
them  that  the  United  States  Government  had  at 
least  guarded  one  trust  with  sacred  care.  The 
pauper  was  excluded  from  the  ballot  as  not  being 
worthy  to  share  with  freemen  the  honor  of  its 
defence.  The  unfortunate  was  excluded  by  an 
inscrutable  decree  of  Providence.  The  criminal 
was  excluded  as  being  dangerous  to  society.  The 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  87 

women  were  exempt  from  the  ballot  because  it 
was  for  their  special  safety  that  a  free  ballot  was 
to  be  exercised,  from  which  the  pauper  and  the 
criminal  must  be  excluded.  They  were  the  ones 
who  have  given  to  social  life  its  meaning  and  its 
moral,  the  ones  who  give  to  civic  life  its  highest 
value. 

The  authors  of  the  "  History  "  so  often  referred 
to,  in  answer  to  the  claim  that  "  government 
needs  force  behind  it,  and  those  who  make  the 
laws  must  execute  them,  and  a  woman  could  not 
be  a  sheriff  or  policeman,"  say :  "  "Woman  might 
not  fill  these  offices  as  men  do,  but  might  far 
more  effectively  guard  the  morals  of  society  and 
the  sanitary  conditions  of  our  cities."  A  "  moral 
guard"  might  be  an  excellent  thing  to  ward 
off  the  ghosts  in  a  country  burying-ground,  but 
would  hardly  prove  effective  against  the  riot  of  a 
Tammany  mob  on  the  night  of  an  exciting  elec- 
tion. It  is  absurd  to  speak  in  such  fashion  of 
work  that  is  needed  every  hour.  The  crust  of 
our  civilization  is  very  thin — how  thin,  the  nation 
learned  during  the  campaign  just  passed.  Like 
a  tempest  from  a  clear  sky,  or  one  of  their  own 
cyclones,  burst  an  influence  from  a  portion  of  the 
West  and  South,  that  would  have  overturned  the 
Government.  Men  struck  fanatically  and  mis- 
guidedly  at  the  integrity  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
at  the  power  of  the  United  States  to  hold  juris- 
diction over  its  own  public  affairs  where  they  con- 
flicted with  State  right,  at  the  currency  that 


88  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

gave  the  country  ability  to  be  honest  at  home  and 
abroad,  at  the  prosperity  and  honor  of  every 
citizen. 

Fifteen  years  ago  Suffrage  leaders  wrote  in 
view  of  the  wonderful  advance  of  woman  :  "  The 
broader  demand  for  political  rights  has  not  com- 
manded the  thought  its  merits  and  dignity  should 
have  secured."  If  this  was  true,  it  had  not  been 
for  lack  of  having  the  demand  pressed  home  upon 
Congress  and  upon  every  State  and  Territorial 
legislature  (save  in  most  of  the  South),  in  season 
and  out  of  season,  by  every  device  known  to  poli- 
tics, as  well  as  by  a  steady  and  impetuous  flow  of 
literature  and  petitions.  How  have  these  bodies 
answered  this  long  appeal  ?  It  would  take  too 
much  time  and  space,  even  were  it  of  value,  to 
follow  the  course  of  its  ups  and  downs  through 
all  these  years,  but  I  mention  first  the  fact  that 
no  State  in  New  England  has  ever  granted  con- 
stitutional, or  even  municipal  suffrage,  although  in 
some  of  the  old  thirteen  it  could  have  been  done 
by  an  act  of  the  legislature,  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment not  being  needed.  These  are  some  of  the 
figures  for  the  past  few  years  : 

In  Vermont,  in  1892,  the  House  passed  a  mu- 
nicipal suffrage  bill — yeas  149,  nays  83.  In  1894 
the  House  defeated  a  similar  bill  by  a  vote  of  108 
to  106,  and  refused  reconsideration  by  a  vote  of 
124  to  96.  Thus  a  favorable  majority  of  66  in 
1892  was  changed  to  an  adverse  majority  of  28  in 
1894. 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  89 

In  Massachusetts,  in  1894,  the  House  passed  a 
municipal  suffrage  bill  by  a  vote  of  119  to  107. 
In  1895  it  defeated  a  similar  bill,  the  vote  standing, 
yeas  97,  nays  137,  on  the  question  of  carrying  the 
bill  to  a  third  reading.  In  the  same  year  an  act 
was  passed  permitting  all  persons  qualified  to  vote 
for  school  committee  to  express  their  opinion  at 
the  state  election  by  voting  "  Yes  "  or  "  No,"  to 
the  question :  "  Is  it  expedient  that  municipal 
suffrage  be  granted  to  women  ?  "  Not  one  woman 
in  four  voted  in  favor  of  the  proposition,  although 
if  suffrage  has  any  traditionary  power  outside  of 
New  York  State,  that  power  should  have  been 
felt  in  Massachusetts. 

In  Maine,  in  1893,  the  Senate  passed  a  munic- 
ipal suffrage  bill,  which  was  defeated  in  the  House. 
In  1895  the  House  passed  a  municipal  suffrage 
bill,  which  was  defeated  in  the  Senate. 

In  New  Hampshire,  in  1895,  the  House  refused 
a  third  reading  to  a  municipal  suffrage  bill,  by  a 
vote  of  185  to  108. 

In  Connecticut,  in  1895,  the  Senate  rejected  a 
House  municipal  suffrage  bill,  while  a  presiden- 
tial suffrage  bill  did  not  reach  a  vote.  And 
in  Bhode  Island  a  proposition  for  a  suffrage 
Constitutional  amendment  was  referred  to  the 
next  legislature. 

All  these  States  had  granted  school  suffrage  and 
could  grant  municipal  suffrage  by  act  of  the 
legislature.  In  1893  municipal  suffrage  bills 
were  defeated  in  Minnesota,  Missouri,  North 


90  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Dakota,  and  South  Dakota.  Full  suffrage  bills 
were  defeated  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  A 
township  suffrage  bill  was  defeated  in  Illinois,  a 
license  suffrage  bill  in  Connecticut,  and  a  village 
suffrage  bill  in  New  York.  In  that  year,  also, 
the  Supreme  Courts  gave  decisions  adverse  to 
suffrage  laws.  In  1893  a  bill  was  defeated  in  the 
United  States  Senate  which  proposed  to  give 
women  the  municipal  vote  in  the  Cherokee  Out- 
let. The  vote  stood  40  to  9. 

In  Washington  Territory  the  Legislature  passed 
a  law  conferring  suffrage  on  woman  in  1883 ; 
but  this  was  declared  invalid  by  the  courts  in  1887, 
because  its  nature  was  not  sufficiently  defined  in 
its  title.  It  was  re-enacted  in  1888,  and  again 
declared  invalid  by  the  United  States  Territorial 
Court,  on  the  ground  that  the  Act  of  Congress 
which  organized  the  Territorial  legislature  did 
not  empower  it  to  extend  the  suffrage  to  women. 
In  1889  the  people,  in  forming  their  State  consti- 
tution, decided  against  suffrage. 

In  1894,  in  the  election  of  November  6,  Kansas 
defeated  a  constitutional  amendment  granting 
full  suffrage,  by  a  majority  of  34,827. 

In  Iowa,  in  the  same  year,  the  Senate  defeated 
a  proposition  to  submit  a  suffrage  constitutional 
amendment  to  the  people.  In  1895,  bills  for  full 
suffrage  and  for  municipal  suffrage  again  failed 
to  pass,  and  the  question  was  submitted  to  the 
people  in  1896,  and  resulted  in  defeat. 


THE  AMEEICAN  REPUBLIC.  91 

In  1895,  also,  a  township  suffrage  bill  was  twice 
defeated  in  Illinois. 

In  Indiana  a  proposition  to  strike  the  word 
"  male "  out  of  the  Constitution,  was  not  even 
reported  from  the  committee  to  which  it  was 
referred. 

In  the  same  year,  in  Kansas,  a  bill  passed  the 
Senate  which  proposed  to  confer  upon  nine  speci- 
fied women  the  full  suffrage  in  response  to  their 
petition.  The  Senate  also  passed  a  bill  con- 
ferring upon  women  the  vote  for  presidential 
electors ;  but  neither  ever  reached  a  vote  in  the 
House.  In  Michigan,  the  same  year,  a  proposi- 
tion to  submit  a  constitutional  amendment  was 
defeated,  and  a  similar  resolution  in  Missouri  was 
also  defeated.  Montana,  North  Dakota,  South 
Dakota,  Washington,  Wisconsin,  and  South  Caro- 
lina also  defeated  propositions  to  submit  the  ques- 
tion to  the  people  in  1895. 

Since  January,  1897,  Nova  Scotia,  two  Terri- 
tories, and  ten  States  have  dealt  with  the  suffrage 
proposal,  and  all  but  one  of  these  have  rendered 
adverse  decisions.  In  Nova  Scotia  an  old  bill  was 
reconsidered,  and  a  larger  majority  was  obtained 
against  it.  The  territories  are  Arizona  and  Okla- 
homa. The  states  in  which  it  was  defeated  are 
Iowa,  Nevada,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Delaware, 
Maine,  Massachusetts,  and  California.  The  last 
two  had  given  it  heavy  defeats  but  a  few  months 
previously.  Indiana's  Supreme  Court  handed 
down  an  adverse  decision.  The  favorable  state 


92  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

was  Washington,  where  the  Legislature  voted  to 
submit  an  amendment  to  the  people  next  year. 

Certainly,  the  question  cannot  be  said  not  to 
have  received  the  attention  that  any  vital  subject 
might  have  claimed,  and  the  answers  show  that, 
as  comprehension  of  the  meaning  of  democracy 
has  grown,  and  as  liberty  of  thought  and  action 
for  men  and  women  has  increased,  the  proposi- 
tion to  cast  an  unequal  burden,  not  upon  a  dis- 
franchised class,  but  upon  an  unfranchised  sex 
which  in  every  class  has  its  own  correlative  and 
equal  duties,  rights,  and  privileges,  is  losing 
ground. 

But,  it  is  answered,  look  at  the  suffrage  triumphs 
in  Utah  State  and  Idaho.  Let  us  look  at  them 
more  closely.  It  is  my  opinion  that  a  few  more 
such  triumphs  would  end  in  its  utter  overthrow. 
Utah  introduced  suffrage  by  a  simple  legislative 
act.  Woman  suffrage  was  abolished  in  Utah  Ter- 
ritory by  Federal  statute,  because  it  was  found  to 
be  sustaining  the  Mormon  Church  and  the  insti- 
tution of  polygamy.  The  Suffragists  profess  to 
hold  in  abhorrence  churchly  and  polygamous  rule. 
Here  was  an  opportunity  for  them  to  say  to  the 
Government :  "  This  is  not  what  we  meant  by 
suffrage,  nor  what  we  desire  suffrage  to  be  used 
for.  We  approve  this  real  disfranchisement." 
Did  they  do  anything  of  the  kind  ?  Far  from  it. 
In  1876  they  passed  the  following :  "  Resolved, 
That,  the  right  of  suffrage  being  vested  in  the 
women  of  Utah  by  their  constitutional  and  law- 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  93 

ful  enfranchisement,  and  by  six  years  of  use,  we 
denounce  the  proposition  about  to  be  again  pre- 
sented to  Congress  for  the  disfranchisement  of 
the  women  of  that  Territory,  as  an  outrage  on 
the  freedom  of  thousands  of  legal  voters  and  a 
gross  innovation  of  vested  rights  ;  we  demand  the 
abolition  of  the  system  of  numbering  the  ballots, 
in  order  that  the  women  may  be  thoroughly  free 
to  vote  as  they  choose,  without  supervision  or  dic- 
tation ;  and  that  the  chair  appoint  a  committee 
of  three  persons,  with  power  to  add  to  their  num- 
ber, to  memorialize  Congress,  and  otherwise  watch 
over  the  rights  of  women  of  Utah  in  this  regard 
during  the  next  twelvemonth." 

In  1878  the  report  of  Utah's  governor  con- 
tained the  following :  "  All  voters  must  be  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  must  have  resided 
in  the  Territory  six  months,  and  in  the  precinct 
one  month.  If  males,  they  must  be  native  born 
or  naturalized  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and 
tax-payers  in  the  Territory.  A  female  voter  need 
not  be  a  tax-payer,  and  if  the  wife,  widow  or 
daughter  of  a  native  or  naturalized  citizen,  need 
not  herself  be  native  or  naturalized ! "  In  1892 
the  Utah  Commission  made  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  a  report  which  gave  it  as  their 
opinion  that  the  sanction  of  the  Church  had  been 
withdrawn  only  temporarily  in  regard  to  polyga- 
mous practices,  and  would  be  restored  after  a 
political  purpose  had  been  served.  That  same 
year  a  party  was  formed  calling  itself  the  "  Lib- 


94  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

eral  Party,"  and  it  carried  Salt  Lake  City  in  the 
first  election  in  which  National  party  lines  were 
drawn.  This  was  one  plank  of  its  platform : 
"  Anxious  as  every  Liberal  is  to  see  every  differ- 
ence adjusted,  as  anxious  as  they  are  to  exercise 
the  utmost  privileges  accorded  to  the  most  favored 
Americans,  they  remember  what  first  caused  clash- 
ing here  was  the  presence  and  control  of  an  un- 
yielding Theocracy  and  an  im/perium  in  imperio, 
arid  they  cannot  fail  to  note  that  at  the  last  con- 
ference of  this  theocratic  organization  the  old 
assumptions  were  all  renewed."  They  therefore 
deprecated  immediate  Statehood.  The  bill  grant- 
ing it  passed  Congress  in  1894.  The  Republican, 
Democratic  and  Populist  parties  in  Utah  all 
favored  Statehood,  and  at  the  election  following 
the  Constitutional  Convention  these  parties  all 
inserted  planks  favoring  free  coinage  of  silver 
16  to  1,  demanding  the  return  by  government  of 
"  real  estate  belonging  to  the  Mormon  Church," 
and  favoring  the  retention  of  woman  suffrage. 

The  women  of  Utah  were  greatly  in  evidence 
during  the  late  presidential  election.  Several  of 
them  were  candidates  for  office ;  but  it  is  a  sig- 
nificant fact  that,  even  in  Utah,  and  even  on  the 
Republico-Demo-Populist  ticket,  the  women's  vote 
ran  far  behind  that  for  the  men.  "  The  Salt  Lake 
Herald  "  for  November  13,  1896,  records  the  fact 
that  "  Woman  suffrage  gave  Utah  to  Bryan,"  and 
in  another  place  it  says :  "  The  women  on  both 
tickets  polled  a  small  number  of  votes."  Martha 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  95 

Cannon,  who  was  elected  State  Senator,  obtained 
8,167  votes.  The  men  on  the  same  ticket,  elected 
to  the  same  office,  polled,  respectively,  9,875, 
9,355,  9,244,  9,036  votes.  Mrs.  Cannon  was  on 
the  free  silver  ticket  against  her  husband,  who 
was  nominated  for  the  same  office  on  the  Kepub- 
lican  ticket.  Of  the  other  candidates  for  the  sen- 
atorships  on  that  ticket,  four  were  men  and  one  a 
woman.  The  men's  vote  stood :  6,405,  6,197, 
6,129,  5,961.  The  woman's  was  4,692.  The  only 
woman  put  up  for  State  Representative  ran  2,000 
votes  behind  her  ticket.  One  man  only,  "  the  ex- 
dog-catcher  "  of  the  county,  fell  below  her.  The 
woman's  vote  was  4,879,  the  dog-catcher's  4,325. 
I  copy  from  the  "  Salt  Lake  Herald  "  a  few 
sentences  taken  from  an  interview  with  Mrs. 
Cannon,  State  Senator  elect.  When  asked  if  she 
was  a  strong  believer  in  woman  suffrage,  she 
answered  :  "  Of  course  I  am.  It  will  help  women, 
and  it  will  purify  politics.  Women  are  better 
than  men.  Slaves  are  always  better  than  their 
masters."  "  Do  you  refer  to  polygamy  ?  "  was 
asked.  "  Indeed  I  do  not,"  she  answered.  "  I 
believe  in  polygamy.  My  father  and  mother 
were  Mormons,  and  I  am  a  Mormon.  .  .  .  A  plural 
wife  isn't  half  as  much  of  a  slave  as  a  single  wife. 
If  her  husband  has  four  wives,  she  has  three 
weeks  of  freedom  every  single  month.  ...  Of 
course  it  is  all  at  an  end  now,  but  I  think  the 
women  of  Utah  think,  with  me,  that  we  were 
better  off  in  polygamy.  .  .  .  Sixty  per  cent,  of 


96  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

the  voters  of  this  State  are  women.  We  control 
the  State.  .  .  .  What  am  I  going  to  do  with  my 
children  while  I  am  making  the  laws  for  the 
State  ?  The  same  thing  I  have  done  with  them 
when  I  have  been  practicing  medicine.  They 
have  been  left  to  themselves  a  good  deal.  .  .  . 
Some  day  there  will  be  a  law  compelling  people 
to  have  no  more  than  a  certain  amount  of  chil- 
dren, and  the  mothers  of  the  land  can  live  as  they 
ought  to  live."  This  is  the  character  and  opinion 
presented  by  the  highest  State  official  that  woman 
suffrage  has  as  yet  given  to  the  United  States. 
Comment  upon  it  seems  unnecessary,  so  far  as  it 
would  be  needed  to  express  the  disgust  of  the 
majority  of  American  women  at  such  sentiments 
and  such  a  situation.  But  has  any  Suffrage  speak- 
er or  meeting  denounced  them,  or  deprecated  the 
result  of  the  election?  I  have  heard  of  none. 
The  National  Suffrage  Convention,  which  was 
held  in  Iowa,  in  January,  1897,  had  the  newly- 
elected  Populist  women  as  guests  of  honor,  and 
held  a  jubilation  over  the  two  new  Suffrage  States 
— Utah  and  Idaho.  Idaho  has  elected  a  Populist 
woman  or  two.  The  vote  in  that  State  in  favor 
of  the  gold  standard  and  that  against  woman  suf- 
frage tally  within  forty-two  votes. 

The  instinctive  alliance  of  the  Woman  Suffrage 
movement  with  the  uncertain  and  dangerous  ele- 
ments in  our  political  life  is  well  exemplified  by 
the  campaign  in  California  in  connection  with 
the  late  presidential  election.  Mrs.  Barclay  Haz- 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  97 

ard,  who  was  almost  the  sole  woman  to  express 
publicly  the  opposition  which  the  majority  of 
women  felt,  to  the  Suffrage  idea,  has  given  me  the 
following  clear  account  of  the  conditions  and  re- 
sult. She  says :  "  If  the  advocates  of  Woman 
Suffrage  give  a  really  frank  and  truthful  answer 
to  the  question,  l  What  caused  the  defeat  of  the 
movement  in  the  late  campaign  in  California?' 
they  must  reply,  '  Public  sentiment  was  against 
it.'  In  all  fairness,  there  is  no  other  reason. 
Let  us  consider  the  conditions  under  which  the 
campaign  was  carried  on.  In  the  first  place,  the 
Suffragists  were  most  fortunate  in  choosing  a 
time  when  the  whole  country,  as  well  as  the 
State  of  California,  was  torn  by  a  question  of 
such  vital  importance  to  continued  life  and  well- 
being  that  all  other  matters  were  in  danger  of 
going  by  default. 

"  Second :  They  were  extremely  well  organized 
and  had  command  of  a  campaign  fund  of  no  mean 
magnitude,  which  enabled  them  to  keep  in  the 
field  such  able  and  experienced  agitators  as  Miss 
Susan  B.  Anthony  and  the  Rev.  Anna  Shaw,  to 
say  nothing  of  numerous  lesser  lights. 

"  Third :  There  was  absolutely  no  organized  op- 
position to  the  movement.  The  women  who  dis- 
approved were  as  a  rule  entirely  unaccustomed  to 
public  speaking  and  were  averse  to  coming  for- 
ward in  any  way.  They  remonstrated  in  private 
but  would  not  express  their  views  openly. 

"  Fourth  :  Last  but  by  no  means  least,  our  Suf- 
7 


98  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

frage  friends  may  be  said  to  have  had  the  press 
of  the  State  with  them.  The  'Los  Angeles 
Times '  (the  most  influential  paper  in  the  south- 
ern part  of  the  State)  cannot  be  said  to  have  aided 
the  movement,  neither  did  it  actively  antagonize 
it  beyond  admitting  to  its  columns  occasionally 
letters  from  the  '  Antis.'  Yet  for  this  small  op- 
position I  heard  an  ardent  advocate  propose  that 
the  Suffragists  should  boycott  the  paper ! 

"  Now,  was  ever  a  cause  fought  for  under 
conditions  more  conducive  to  success?  'Every 
thing,'  to  use  a  current  slang  phrase, '  seemed  to 
be  going  their  way.'  They  fully  expected  to  win, 
and  those  of  us  most  opposed  to  their  ideas  in 
private  sadly  conceded  their  probable  victory. 
The  result  when  it  came  was  all  the  more  a  sur- 
prise and  blow  to  the  Suffragists  and  a  welcome 
reassurance  to  the  friends  of  stability  and  con- 
servatism. The  figures  show  us  that  while  the 
stronghold  of  Populism,  the  South,  went  for  the 
measure,  Alameda  County  turned  the  scale.  One 
must  know  California  to  realize  what  that  means. 
Alameda  County  contains  the  city  of  Oakland, 
which  is  admittedly  the  most  respectable  and 
moral  city  in  California;  it  also  contains  the 
town  of  Berkeley,  which  is  the  home  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  California  with  its  large  faculty  of 
clever  men,  most  of  them  from  the  East.  Yes,  it 
was  here  in  the  stronghold  of  morals  and  intellect 
that  the  "Woman  Suffrage  movement  in  Califor- 
nia met  its  fate." 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  99 

A  question  constantly  and  properly  asked  is: 
"  How  does  woman  suffrage  work  where  it  is  exer- 
cised ? "  So  far  as  I  can  obtain  information,  where 
it  has  worked  at  all,  it  has  been  detrimental  to 
women  and  to  the  State. 

Of  Wyoming  there  is  much  testimony  to  the 
fact  that  during  the  Territorial  period  (1868- 
'89)  women  did  little  voting,  and  played  no  ap- 
preciable part  in  political  life.  Populism  and 
Free  Coinage  had  begun  to  play  a  prominent  part 
in  the  whole  section  when  Wyoming  was  admitted 
to  Statehood  in  1890.  At  the  election  that  fol- 
lowed its  admission  there  was  a  fusion  that  re- 
sulted in  the  election  of  a  Populist  Governor,  and 
such  was  the  riotous  state  of  feeling  that  the  Gov- 
ernor was  obliged  to  enter  the  State  House 
through  a  broken  window.  A  year  later  this  same 
Governor,  in  his  annual  message,proclaimed  woman 
suffrage  to  be  a  notable  success.  As  a  proof,  he 
pointed  to  the  fact  that  there  were  no  criminals 
in  the  State,  and  that  the  jails  were  empty.  A 
little  research  into  official  documents  showed  that 
there  might  be  other  reasons,  because  the  crim- 
inals and  those  guilty  of  small  offences  were  at 
that  time  lodged  in  other  States,  and  a  year  later, 
when  the  authorities  took  possession  of  Laramie 
Prison,  given  by  the  Government,  and  brought 
home  their  evil-doers,  they  outnumbered,  in  pro- 
portion to  population,  those  of  New  Mexico,  which 
certainly  should  be  a  fair  place  for  comparison. 

For  a  time,  women  served  on  juries,  and  there 


100  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

is  testimony  to  the  fact  that  in  many  respects  they 
served  well.  But  the  practice  of  calling  them  was 
soon  suspended,  and  never  has  been  renewed. 
The  only  public  office  of  consequence  held  by 
them  was  bestowed  by  the  Republicans  but  a  year 
or  two  ago,  when  Miss  Reel  was  made  State  Su- 
perintendent of  Schools.  In  our  late  crucial  elec- 
tion, Wyoming  and  its  woman  suffrage  gave  their 
voices  for  Populism  and  Free  Coinage.  The 
scale  hung  in  the  balance.  Why,  if  woman  is  a 
greater  political  power  for  good  than  man,  did 
she  not  turn  it  for  the  principles  which  the  State 
had  held  were  best  ?  The  true  test  of  the  work- 
ing of  woman  suffrage  lies  in  a  study  of  the  legis- 
lation connected  with  it,  and  this  will  be  pre- 
sented under  its  appropriate  heading. 

The  scenes  of  shameful  defiance  of  law  and 
order  in  the  midst  of  which  Colorado  admitted 
woman  to  the  ballot  are  of  more  recent  occurrence 
and  are  fresh  in  memory.  Populism  never  has 
played  in  Colorado  the  part  that  it  has  in  Kan- 
sas, but  "  anything  for  free  coinage "  has  been 
the  motto,  and  in  abiding  by  it  the  State  brought 
in,  and  afterward  turned  out,  Gov.  Waite,  of  dis- 
graceful memory.  Again,  last  year,  there  was 
Republican-Democratic-Populist  fusion  to  beat 
the  gold  standard,  and  much  Populist  rule  was 
again  the  result.  One  good  authority  writes 
me  that  women  "  have  introduced  an  element  of 
order  and  respectability  upon  election  day  that 
was  never  observed  before."  He  says  he  thinks 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  101 

that,  "  as  a  whole,  the  people  are  very  much  sat- 
isfied with  woman  suffrage  and  believe  that  it 
has  resulted  beneficially  in  so  far  as  it  has  made 
politics  a  little  better  than  they  were."  Another 
says  that  "  the  influence  of  woman  in  politics  did 
not  prevent  the  last  Eepublican  caucus  of  Arapa- 
hoe  Co.  from  being  the  most  disgraceful  in  the 
history  of  the  State.  The  Convention,  though 
presided  over  by  a  woman,  was  completely  in  the 
power  of  the  *  gang,'  and  sent  to  Pueblo  the  most 
unworthy  delegate  ever  sent."  This  gentleman 
also  says  he  has  "heard  numbers  of  intelligent 
women  state  that  they  were  sorry  the  ballot  had 
ever  been  given  to  them."  Orderliness  at  the  or- 
dinary elections  is  expected  here,  without  calling 
upon  women  to  act  as  "  moral  police  "  at  the  polls. 
So  quiet  are  they  that  it  has  been  found  practic- 
able to  place  coffee-stands  in  charge  of  women 
near  some  of  the  booths,  when  women  have  re- 
quested it  in  the  hope  of  preventing  drunkenness. 
A  friend  said  to  me  some  time  ago :  "  You  know 
that  I  have  been  a  Suffragist.  I  am  most  thor- 
oughly converted.  I  have  been  three  months  in 
Colorado.  It  is  enough  to  cure  any  one." 

A  Denver  correspondent  of  the  "  Chicago 
Record,"  says  :  "  The  women  of  Colorado  took  no 
active  part  in  the  recent  campaign,  but  they  did 
not  forget  to  vote.  .  .  .  The  experiment  of  having 
women  in  the  State  Assembly  did  not  prove  satisfac- 
tory, at  the  last  session,  and  it  was  quite  generally 
conceded  that  there  would  be  no  more  women 


102  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

sent  to  that  body ;  but  the  Populists  won  in  this 
county,  and  on  their  ticket  were  three  woman 
candidates,  so  the  coming  session  will  again  have 
three  women  as  members." 

Of  course  the  effect  of  suffrage  in  new  States 
is  not  a  criterion  of  its  effect  elsewhere.  And 
whether  the  effect  could  be  shown  to  be  good  or 
bad,  the  main  argument  would  not  be  touched. 
The  interesting  thing  to  trace  is  the  affiliations  of 
the  movement. 

In  addition  to  those  that  have  been  mentioned 
we  recall  the  fact  that  in  our  recent  political 
campaign,  four  parties  that  nominated  candidates 
for  President  and  Yice-President  of  the  United 
States,  had  in  their  conventions  women  as  dele- 
gates and  members  of  committees.  They  were 
the  Populist,  the  Free-Silver,  the  Prohibition, 
and  the  Socialist-Labor  parties.  The  woman- 
suffragists  of  the  Prohibition  party  left  the  rock- 
ribbed  champion  that  had  put  a  Suffrage  plank  in 
every  platform  for  years,  in  order  to  go  with 
Free  Silver  and  Populism  of  the  most  extravagant 
type.  These  parties  also  had  Suffrage  planks. 
Altgeld  and  Debs,  Coxey  and  Tillman  were  only 
men,  but  Mary  Ellen  Lease  furnished  to  the  cam- 
paign that  strain  of  exalted  fanaticism  that  at  once 
points  out  woman's  glory  and  woman's  danger. 

The  Suffrage  indictment  we  have  been  consider- 
ing is  summed  up  as  follows :  "  Now,  in  view  of 
this  entire  disfranchisement  of  one  half  of  the 
people  of  this  country,  their  social  and  religious 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  103 

degradation — in  view  of  the  unjust  laws  above 
mentioned,  and  because  women  do  feel  them- 
selves aggrieved,  oppressed,  and  fraudulently 
deprived  of  their  most  sacred  rights,  we  insist 
that  they  have  immediate  admission  to  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  which  belong  to  them  as 
citizens  of  the  United  States." 

Dr.  Jacobi  in  "  Common  Sense "  says :  "  To 
this  very  day  the  survivors  of  that  group  of 
pioneer  women  have  an  abstract  way  of  stating 
their  claim  which,  to  modern  ears,  sounds  some- 
what archaic." 

She  is  not  archaic  when  she  says:  "During 
the  long  ages  of  class  rule,  which  are  just  begin- 
ning to  cease,  only  one  form  of  sovereignty  has 
been  assigned  to  all  men — that,  namely,  over  all 
women.  Upon  these  feeble  and  inferior  compan- 
ions all  men  were  permitted  to  avenge  the  indigni- 
ties they  suffered  from  so  many  men  to  whom  they 
were  forced  to  submit." 

Mary  A.  Livermore  is  not  archaic  when  in  the 
"North  American  Eeview"  for  February,  1896, 
she  says :  "  Her  physical  weakness,  and  not  alone 
her  mental  inferiority,  has  made  her  the  subject 
of  man.  Toiling  patiently  for  him,  cheerfully 
sharing  with  him  all  his  perils  and  hardships,  the 
unappreciated  mother  of  his  children,  she  has 
been  bought  and  sold,  petted  and  tortured,  ac- 
cording to  the  whims  of  her  brutal  owner,  the 
victim  everywhere  of  pillage,  lust,  war,  and  servi- 
tude. And  this  statement  includes  all  races  and 


104  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

peoples  of  the  earth  from  the  date  of  their  historic 
existence." 

I  deny  the  truthfulness  of  the  archaic  accusation, 
and  denounce  as  an  absurdity  the  bombastic 
demand.  I  resent,  as  an  unwarranted  insult  to 
woman  and  to  man,  the  still  more  bitter  modern 
representations  of  woman's  condition  and  woman's 
rights  in  this  world,  and  especially  in  this  Re- 
public. They  are  simply  false. 

Archaic  or  modern,  the  dictums  of  the  Suffrage 
pioneers  have  been  repeated  at  their  every  con- 
vention. Overlaid  with  sentiment  as  much  of  the 
Suffrage  idea  has  become,  contradictory  as  it  is 
in  argument  and  in  statement  of  fact,  blended  as 
are  its  sophisms  with  the  real  progress  of  the 
time,  sincere  and  well-meaning  as  are  many  of 
its  advocates,  sex  antagonism  is  the  corner-stone 
of  its  foundation.  The  Woman's  Rebellion  is  a 
more  complex  affair  than  the  American  Revolu- 
tion. The  latter  was  the  natural  result  of  the 
earnest  and  united  protest,  by  a  large  majority  of 
men  and  women  of  the  American  Colonies,  against 
the  tyranny  of  a  monarchical  government.  The 
former  was  a  protest  by  a  small  band  of  women 
and  men  against  what  they  claimed  to  be  uni- 
versal tyranny.  They  attacked  law  and  custom 
all  along  the  line,  and  the  weapon  forever  kept  in 
order  for  the  service  was  the  demand  for  woman's 
possession  of  the  ballot.  "Where  she  does  not 
possess  it,  and  has  not  asked  it,  her  influence  is 
mightiest.  The  relation  of  woman  to  the  Republic 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC.  105 

is  a  study  worthy  the  most  exalted  patriotism. 
In  it  is  involved  the  broader  question  of  her  re- 
lation to  man  and  to  the  destiny  of  the  race. 
When  told  of  her  son's  heroism  in  crossing  the 
Delaware,  Mary  Washington  said,  "  George  will 
not  forget  the  lessons  I  have  taught  him." 
Through  the  mother's  devoted  faith  and  the  son's 
obedient  power,  the  foundations  were  laid  of  a 
government  whose  sole  reliance  must  still  be  on 
woman's  inspiration  and  man's  willing  strength. 
These  are  evidently  God's  instruments  for  our 
Nation's  upbuilding. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WOMAN    SUFFRAGE   AND  PHILANTHROPY. 

THE  extinction  of  human  bondage,  more  per- 
haps than  any  other  one  event,  has  emphasized 
the  progress  of  the  century  about  to  close.  Our 
generation  has  witnessed  the  destruction  of  serf- 
dom in  Russia,  and  of  slavery  in  Brazil  and  the 
United  States.  Freedom  was  gained ;  but  of  the 
enlightened  rulers  through  whom  it  was  won,  two 
were  assassinated  and  one  was  exiled  to  die.  Sac- 
rifice is  still  the  price  of  liberty. 

Much  stress  has  been  laid  by  Suffragists  upon 
the  supposed  fact  that  the  Woman-suffrage  move- 
ment grew  up  as  a  logical  conclusion  from  the 
Anti-slavery  movement.  It  grew  out  of  it  in  the 
sense  of  having  been  born  in  its  midst ;  but  I  be- 
lieve that  the  truth  will  be  found  to  be  that  it 
was  the  most  prolific  source  of  the  dissensions 
that  marred  that  noble  cause,  and  was  identified 
with  the  small  element  that  adopted  wild  notions 
or  used  the  notoriety  gained  by  opposition  to 
slavery  in  order  to  propagate  mischief.  The  con- 
duct of  those  who  later  entered  the  Suffrage  move- 
ment hindered  the  public  work  of  women  from 
the  time  of  organized  effort  for  the  slave  until 
1 06 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  107 

slavery  fell  pierced  to  death  amid  the  horrors  of 
a  fratricidal  war.  I  will  take  a  brief  survey  of 
the  Anti-slavery  struggle  as  it  blended  itself  with 
the  doctrines  of  those  abolitionists  who  were  the 
earliest  and  staunchest  friends  of  the  Suffrage 
movement,  and  compare  it  with  the  statements 
and  claims  of  the  women  themselves. 

I  first  refer  to  the  "  Life  of  James  G.  Birney," 
by  his  son,  General  William  Birney.  James  G. 
Birney  was  an  early  friend  of  Henry  B.  Stanton, 
husband  of  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  and  with  him 
helped  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  Free-Soil 
Party,  and  later  the  Republican  Party.  General 
Birney  says  of  his  father :  "  In  his  visit  to  New 
York  and  New  England,  in  May  and  June,  1837, 
Mr.  Birney's  chief  object  had  been  to  restore 
harmony  among  Anti-slavery  leaders  on  doctrines 
and  measures,  and  especially  to  check  a  tendency, 
already  marked  in  Massachusetts,  to  burden  the 
cause  with  irrelevant  reforms,  real  or  supposed. 
With  this  view  he  had  attended  the  New  England 
Anti-slavery  Convention  held  at  Boston,  May  30 
to  June  2  inclusive,  accepted  the  position  of  one 
of  its  vice-presidents,  and  acted  as  a  member  of  its 
committee  on  business.  Rev.  Henry  C.  Wright,  the 
leader  of  the  No-Human-Government,  Woman's- 
Rights,  and  Moral-Reform  factions,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Convention,  but  received  no  appoint- 
ment on  any  committee.  On  June  23,  in  the 
'Liberator'  [his  newspaper],  Mr.  Garrison  de- 
nounced human  governments.  July  4,  he  spoke 


108  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

at  Providence,  as  if  approvingly,  of  the  over- 
throw of  the  Nation,  the  dismemberment  of  the 
Union,  and  the  dashing  in  pieces  of  the  Church. 
July  15,  an  association  of  Congregational  ministers 
issued  a  '  pastoral  letter '  against  the  new  doctrines. 
August  2,  five  clergymen,  claiming  to  represent 
nine  tenths  of  the  abolitionists  of  Massachusetts, 
published  an  <  appeal '  which  was  directed  more 
especially  against  the  course  of  the  ( Liberator.' 
August  3,  the  abolitionists  of  Andover  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  issued  a  similar  appeal.  Among 
the  complaints  were  some  against  '  speculations 
that  lead  inevitably  to  disorganization,  anarchy, 
unsettling  the  domestic  economy,  removing  the 
landmarks  of  society,  and  unhinging  the  machin- 
ery of  government.'  A  new  Anti-slavery  society 
in  Bangor  passed  the  following  resolution :  '  That, 
while  we  admit  the  right  of  full  and  free  discus- 
sion of  all  subjects,  yet,  in  our  judgment,  indi- 
viduals rejecting  the  authority  of  civil  and  pa- 
rental governments  ought  not  to  be  employed  as 
agents  and  lecturers  in  promoting  the  cause  of 
emancipation.' " 

In  his  Autobiography,  speaking  of  this  time, 
Frederick  Douglass  says:  "I  believe  my  first 
offence  against  our  Anti-slavery  Israel  was  com- 
mitted during  these  Syracuse  meetings.  It  was 
in  this  wise :  Our  general  agent,  John  A.  Collins, 
had  recently  returned  from  England  full  of  com- 
munistic ideas,  which  ideas  would  do  away  with 
individual  property  and  have  all  things  in  com- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.   109 

mon.  He  had  arranged  a  corps  of  speakers  of 
his  communistic  persuasion,  consisting  of  John  O. 
Wattles,  Nathaniel  Whiting,  and  John  Orvis,  to 
follow  our  Anti-slavery  conventions,  and  while 
our  meeting  was  in  progress  in  Syracuse  Mr.  Col- 
lins came  in  with  his  new  friends  and  doctrines 
and  proposed  to  adjourn  our  Anti-slavery  discus- 
sions and  take  up  the  subject  of  communism.  To 
this  I  ventured  to  object.  I  held  that  it  was  im- 
posing an  additional  burden  of  unpopularity  on 
our  cause,  and  an  act  of  bad  faith  with  the  peo- 
ple who  paid  the  salary  of  Mr.  Collins  and  were  re- 
sponsible for  these  hundred  conventions.  Strange 
to  say,  my  course  in  this  matter  did  not  meet  the 
approval  of  Mrs.  Maria  W.  Chapman,  an  influen- 
tial member  of  the  board  of  managers  of  the 
Massachusetts  Anti-slavery  society,  and  called  out 
a  sharp  reprimand  from  her,  for  insubordination  to 
my  superiors."  John  O.  Wattles  labored  hard  to 
introduce  Woman  Suffrage  into  the  State  Con- 
stitution of  Kansas.  Mr.  Collins  worked  for  it  in 
California  in  the  early  days.  Mrs.  Chapman,  who 
had  embraced  Mr.  Collins' s  doctrines,  was  one  of 
the  first  pillars  of  the  Suffrage  movement. 

Later,  when  Mr.  Douglass  determined  to  estab- 
lish a  newspaper  and  become  its  editor,  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  New  England,  "  for  the  sake  of 
peace,"  he  says,  as  his  Anti-slavery  friends  op- 
posed it,  saying  that  it  was  absurd  to  think  of 
a  wood-sawyer  offering  himself  as  an  editor.  In 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  he  established  "The  North 


110  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Star."  He  says,  "  I  was  then  a  faithful  disciple 
of  William  L.  Garrison,  and  fully  committed  to 
his  doctrine  touching  the  pro-slavery  character  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  also  the 
non-voting  principle,  of  which  he  was  the  known 
and  distinguished  advocate.  "With  him,  I  held  it 
to  be  the  first  duty  of  the  non-slaveholding  States 
to  dissolve  the  union  with  the  slaveholding  States, 
and  hence  my  cry,  like  his,  was  '  No  union  with 
slaveholders.'  After  a  time,  a  careful  reconsider- 
ation of  the  subject  convinced  me  that  there  was 
no  necessity  for l  dissolving  the  union  between  the 
northern  and  southern  States ; '  that  to  seek  this 
dissolution  was  no  part  of  my  duty  as  an  aboli- 
tionist ;  that  to  abstain  from  voting  was  to  refuse 
to  exercise  a  legitimate  and  powerful  means  for 
abolishing  slavery  ;  and  that  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  not  only  contained  no  guarantees 
in  favor  of  slavery,  but,  on  the  contrary,  was  in 
its  letter  and  spirit  an  Anti-slavery  instrument, 
demanding  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  a  condition 
of  its  own  existence  as  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land.  This  radical  change  in  my  opinions  pro- 
duced a  corresponding  change  in  my  action. 
Those  who  could  not  see  any  honest  reasons  for 
changing  their  views,  as  I  had  done,  could  not 
easily  see  any  such  reasons  for  my  change,  and 
the  common  punishment  of  apostates  was  mine. 
.  .  .  Among  friends  who  had  been  devoted  to 
my  cause  were  Isaac  and  Amy  Post,  William 
and  Mary  Hallowell,  Asa  and  Hulda  Anthony, 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  Ill 

and  indeed  all  the  committee  of  the  Western  New 
York  Anti-Slavery  Society.  They  held  festivals 
and  fairs  to  raise  money,  and  assisted  me  in  every 
other  possible  way  to  keep  my  paper  in  circula- 
tion while  I  was  a  non-voting  abolitionist,  but 
withdrew  from  me  when  I  became  a  voting 
abolitionist." 

The  Posts,  the  Hallowells,  and  the  Anthonys 
were  among  the  first  to  attach  themselves  to  the 
Suffrage  movement. 

The  Grimke  sisters,  who  were  intensely  in- 
terested in  the  abolition  agitation,  followed  Gar- 
rison to  the  extreme,  and  adopted  the  socialistic 
ideas  with  which  his  wing  became  to  a  large 
extent  identified.  They  were  also  early  in  the 
Suffrage  cause.  In  August,  1837,  Whittier  wrote 
to  them  as  follows :  "  I  am  anxious  to  hold  a 
long  conversation  with  you  on  the  subject  of  war, 
human  government,  and  church  and  family  gov- 
ernment. The  more  I  reflect  upon  the  subject 
the  more  difficulty  I  find,  and  the  more  decidedly 
am  I  of  opinion  that  we  ought  to  hold  all  these 
matters  aloof  from  the  cause  of  abolition.  Our 
good  friend,  H.  C.  Wright,  with  the  best  inten- 
tions in  the  world,  is  doing  great  injury  by  a 
different  course.  He  is  making  the  Anti-slavery 
party  responsible  in  a  great  degree  for  his,  to  say 
the  least,  startling  opinions.  .  .  .  But  let  him 
keep  them  distinct  from  the  cause  of  emancipa- 
tion. To  employ  an  agent  who  devotes  half  his 
time  and  talents  to  the  propagation  of  '  no-human 


112  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

or  no-family  government '  doctrines  in  connection, 
intimate  connection,  with  the  doctrines  of  aboli- 
tion, is  a  fraud  upon  the  patrons  of  the  cause. 
Brother  Garrison  errs,  I  think,  in  this  respect. 
He  takes  the  'no-church  and  no-government' 
ground." 

Mr.  Garrison  wrote  to  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  of  his  desire  to  crush  the  "  dis- 
senters," and  Maria  W.  Chapman  wrote  :  "  Why 
will  they  think  they  can  cut  away  from  Garrison 
without  becoming  an  abomination  ?  ...  If  this 
defection  should  drink  the  cup  and  end  all,  we 
of  Massachusetts  will  turn  and  abolish  them 
as  readily  as  we  would  the  colonization  society." 
Henry  B.  Stanton  wrote  to  William  Goodell: 
"  I  am  glad  to  see  that  you  have  criticised  Brother 
H.  C.  Wright.  I  have  just  returned  from  a  few 
months'  tour  in  eastern  Massachusetts,  and  he  has 
done  immense  hurt  there."  A.  A.  Phelps,  agent 
of  the  Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery  society,  wrote  : 
"  I  write  you  this  in  great  grief,  and  yet  I  feel 
constrained  to  do  it.  The  cause  of  abolition  here 
was  never  in  so  dangerous  and  critical  a  position 
before.  Mutual  jealousies  on  the  part  of  the  laity 
and  clergy  are  rampant ;  indeed,  so  much  so  that, 
let  a  clerical  brother  do  what  he  will,  it  is  re- 
solved as  a  matter  of  course  into  a  sinister  motive  ! 
...  Of  this  stamp,  more  than  ever  before,  is 
friend  Garrison.  And  Mrs.  Chapman  remarked 
to  me  the  other  day  that  she  sometimes  doubted 
which  needed  abolition  most,  slavery  or  the  black- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  113 

hearted  ministry.  For  this  cause  alone  we  are  on 
the  brink  of  a  general  split  in  our  ranks.  .  .  .  And 
as  if  to  make  a  bad  matter  worse,  Garrison  in- 
sists on  yoking  perfectionism,  no-go vernmentism, 
and  woman-preaching  with  abolition,  as  part  and 
parcel  of  the  same  lump." 

In  1840,  Emerson,  in  his  Amory  Hall  lecture, 
said :  "  The  Church  or  religious  party  is  falling 
from  the  Church  nominal,  and  is  appearing  in 
Temperance  and  non-resistant  societies,  in  move- 
ments of  abolitionists  and  socialists,  and  in  very 
significant  assemblies  called  Sabbath  and  Bible 
conventions,  composed  of  ultraists,  of  seekers,  of 
all  the  soul  and  soldiery  of  dissent,  and  meeting 
to  call  in  question  the  authority  of  the  Sabbath, 
of  the  priesthood,  of  the  Church.  In  these  move- 
ments nothing  was  more  remarkable  than  the 
discontent  they  begot  in  the  movers.  .  .  .  They 
defied  each  other  like  a  congress  of  kings,  each  of 
whom  had  a  realm  to  rule,  and  a  way  of  his  own 
that  made  concert  unprofitable." 

These  ideas  blossomed,  in  due  course  of  time, 
into  Socialistic  communities.  There  was  a  dis- 
tinctly Anti-slavery  one  at  Hopedale,  Massa- 
chusetts. The  founder,  Adin  Ballou,  published  a 
tract  setting  forth  the  objects  of  the  community, 
from  which  I  make  the  following  extracts :  "  No 
precise  theological  dogmas,  ordinances,  or  cere- 
monies are  prescribed  or  prohibited.  In  such 
matters  all  the  members  are  free,  with  mutual 
love  and  toleration,  to  follow  their  own  highest 


114  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

convictions  of  truth  and  religious  duty,  answer- 
able only  to  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  Uni- 
versal. It  enjoins  total  abstinence  from  all  God- 
contemning  words  and  deeds ;  all  unchastity ;  all 
intoxicating  beverages ;  all  oath-taking ;  all  slave- 
holding  and  pro-slavery  compromises  ;  all  war  and 
preparations  for  Avar ;  all  capital  and  other  vindic- 
tive punishments ;  all  insurrectionary,  seditious, 
mobocratic,  and  personal  violence  against  any 
government,  society,  family,  or  individual;  all 
voluntary  participation  in  any  anti-Christian  gov- 
ernment, under  promise  of  unqualified  support, 
whether  by  doing  military  service,  commencing 
actions  at  law,  holding  office,  voting,  petitioning 
for  penal  laws,  or  asking  public  interference  for 
protection  which  can  only  be  given  by  such  force. 
It  is  the  seedling  of  the  true  democratic  and  social 
Republic,  wherein  neither  caste,  color,  sex,  nor 
age  stands  prescribed.  It  is  a  moral-suasion  tem-^ 
perance  society  on  the  teetotal  basis.  It  is  a 
moral-power  Anti-slavery  society,  radical  and 
Avithout  compromise.  It  is  a  peace  society  on  the 
only  impregnable  foundation,  that  of  Christian 
non-resistance.  It  is  a  sound  theoretical  and  prac- 
tical "Woman's  Rights  Association."  Among  other 
Suffragists,  Abby  Kelly  Foster  Avas  resident  at 
Hopedale.  Another  community,  at  Northamp- 
ton, Avas  sometimes  described  as  "  Nothingarian." 

Of  the  state  of  things  at  this  time  in  the  Anti- 
slavery  societies,  General  Birney  says,  "  The  no- 
government  men  made  up  in  activity  what  they 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  115 

lacked  in  numbers.  While  refusing  for  them- 
selves to  vote  at  the  ballot-box,  they  voted  in 
conventions  and  formed  coalitions  with  women 
who  wished  to  vote  at  the  ballot-box."  Mr. 
Henry  B.  Stanton  wrote  to  William  Goodell: 
"  An  effort  was  made  at  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  Massachusetts  society,  which  adjourned  to- 
day, to  make  its  annual  report  and  its  action 
subservient  to  the  non-resistant  movement,  and 
through  the  votes  of  the  women  of  Lynn  and 
Boston  it  succeeded."  A  little  later,  January, 
1839,  Mr.  Stanton  wrote  again  to  Mr.  Goodell,  as 
follows  :  "  I  have  taken  the  liberty  to  show  your 
letter  to  brothers  Phelps,  George  Allen,  George 
Kussell,  O.  Scott,  K.  Colver,  and  a  large  number 
of  others,  and  they  highly  approve  its  sentiments. 
They,  with  you,  are  fully  of  the  opinion  that  it  is 
high  time  to  take  a  firm  stand  against  the  no- 
government  doctrine.  They  are  far  from  regard- 
ing it  merely  as  a  humbug."  John  A.  Collins,  the 
Anti-slavery  agent  referred  to,  founded  a  com- 
munity at  Skaneateles,  N.  Y.,  based  upon  the 
following  dictums  :  A  disbelief  in  any  special  rev- 
elation of  God  to  Man,  in  any  form  of  worship, 
in  any  special  regard  for  the  Sabbath,  in  any 
church,  disbelief  in  all  governments  based  on  phys- 
ical force,  because  they  are  "  organized  bands  of 
banditti,"  whose  authority  is  to  be  disregarded, 
a  disbelief  in  voting,  in  petitioning,  in  doing  mili- 
tary duty,  paying  personal  or  property  taxes, 
serving  on  juries,  testifying  in  "  so-called  "  courts 


116  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

of  justice.  A  disbelief  in  any  individual  property. 
A  belief  that  as  marriage  is  designed  for  the  hap- 
piness of  the  parties  to  it,  when  such  parties  have 
outlived  their  affections,  the  sooner  the  separa- 
tion takes  place  the  better,  and  that  such  separa- 
tion shall  not  be  a  barrier  to  their  again  uniting 
with  any  one.  The  community  lived  two  and  a 
half  years,  and  broke  up  with  a  debt  of  ten  thou- 
sand dollars.  John  O.  Wattles,  who  was  associ- 
ated with  Collins  in  the  disturbance  referred  to 
by  Frederick  Douglass,  founded  a  community  in 
Logan  County,  Ohio,  which  was  called  "  The 
Prairie  Home."  They  had  no  laws,  no  govern- 
ment, no  opinions,  no  principles,  no  form  of 
society,  no  test  of  admission.  They  professed  to 
take  for  their  creed  the  dictum  "  Do  as  you  would 
be  done  by."  The  association  broke  up  in  an- 
archy within  a  few  months.  Mr.  Collins  and 
Mr.  "Wattles  were  always  promoters  of  the  "Wo- 
man-Suffrage movement. 

Mr.  Garrison  said :  "  "We  cannot  acknowledge 
allegiance  to  any  human  government.  We  can 
allow  no  appeal  to  patriotism  to  revenge  any  na- 
tional insult  or  injury."  Again  he  said  :  "  If  a 
nation  has  no  right  to  defend  itself  against  for- 
eign enemies,  no  individual  possesses  that  right  in 
his  own  case.  .  .  .  As  every  human  government  is 
upheld  by  physical  strength,  and  its  laws  are 
enforced  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  we  cannot 
hold  office.  We  therefore  exclude  ourselves  from 
every  legislative  and  judicial  body,  and  repudiate 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  117 

all  human  politics,  worldly  honors,  and  stations 
of  authority." 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  says :  "  They  withdraw 
themselves  from  the  common  labors  and  competi- 
tions of  the  market  and  the  caucus.  .  .  .  They 
are  striking  work,  and  calling  out  for  something 
worthy  to  do.  .  .  .  They  are  not  good  citizens, 
not  good  members  of  society ;  unwilling  to  bear 
their  part  of  the  public  burdens.  They  do  not 
even  like  to  vote.  They  filled  the  world  with 
long  beards  and  long  words.  They  began  in 
words,  and  ended  in  words." 

Charles  Sumner  said :  "  An  omnibus-load  of 
Boston  abolitionists  has  done  more  harm  to  the 
Anti-slavery  cause  than  all  its  enemies." 

Angelina  Grimke,  writing  at  this  time  to  Mr. 
Weld,  said :  "  What  wouldst  thou  think  of  the 
'  Liberator '  abandoning  abolitionism  as  a  primary 
object,  and  becoming  the  vehicle  of  all  these 
grand  principles  ? " 

In  his  published  volume  "  Anti-slavery  Days," 
James  Freeman  Clarke  says  of  the  first  Garrison 
Anti-slavery  society :  "  There  was  no  such  excite- 
ment to  be  had  anywhere  else  as  at  these  meetings. 
There  was  a  little  of  every  thing  going  on  in  them. 
Sometimes  crazy  people  would  come  in  and  insist 
on  taking  up  the  time ;  sometimes  mobs  would 
interrupt  the  smooth  tenor  of  their  way  ;  but  amid 
all  disturbance  each  meeting  gave  us  an  interest- 
ing and  impressive  hour.  I  think  that  some  of 
the  Garrisonian  orators  had  the  keenest  tongues 


118  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

ever  given  to  man.  Stephen  S.  Foster  and  Henry 
C.  Wright,  for  example,  said  the  sharpest  things 
that  were  ever  uttered.  Their  belief  was,  that 
people  were  asleep,  and  the  only  thing  to  be  done 
was  to  rouse  them  ;  and  to  do  this  it  was  neces- 
sary to  cut  deep  and  spare  not.  The  more  angry 
people  were  made,  the  better."  Again,  in  the 
same  volume,  he  says,  after  describing  the  politi- 
cal Anti-slavery  party  :  "  While  these  political 
anti-slavery  movements  were  going  on,  the  old 
abolitionists,  under  the  lead  of  Garrison,  Phillips, 
and  others,  had  decided  to  oppose  all  voting 
and  all  political  efforts  under  the  Constitution, 
They  adopted  as  their  motto,  'No  union  with 
slaveholders.'  Their  hope  for  abolishing  slavery 
was  in  inducing  the  North  to  dissolve  the  Union. 
Edmund  Quincy  said  the  Union  was  '  a  confed1 
eracy  with  crime, '  that  '  the  experiment  of  a 
great  nation  with  popular  institutions  had  sig- 
nally failed,'  that  '  the  Republic  was  not  a  model 
but  a  warning  to  the  nations  ; '  that  '  the  whole 
people  must  be  either  slaveholders  or  slaves;' 
that  the  only  escape  for  '  the  slave  from  his  bond- 
age was  over  the  ruins  of  the  American  Church 
and  the  American  State : '  and  it  was  the  unalter- 
able purpose  of  the  Garrisonians  to  labor  for  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union."  Freeman  Clarke  goes 
on  to  say :  "  Wendell  Phillips  said  on  one  occa- 
sion, '  Thank  God,  I  am  not  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States.'  As  late  as  1861  he  declared  the  Union 
a  failure,  and  argued  for  the  dissolution  of  the 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  119 

Union  as  *  the  best  possible  method  of  abolishing 
slavery.'  If  the  North  had  agreed  to  disunion  and 
had  followed  the  advice  of  Phillips,  '  To  build  a 
bridge  of  gold  to  take  the  slave  States  out  of  the 
Union,'  slavery  would  probably  be  still  existing  in 
all  the  Southern  States.  At  all  events,  it  was  not 
abolished  by  those  who  wished  for  disunion,  but 
by  those  who  were  determined  at  all  hazards  and 
by  every  sacrifice  to  maintain  the  Union." 

On  April  8,  1839,  Henry  B.  Stanton  wrote  to 
William  Goodell  as  follows :  "  At  this  very  time, 
and  mainly,  too,  in  that  part  of  the  country  where 
political  action  has  been  most  successful,  and 
whence,  from  its  promise  of  soon  being  triumphant, 
great  encouragement  Avas  derived  by  abolitionists 
everywhere,  a  sect  has  arisen  in  our  midst  whose 
members  regard  it  as  of  religious  obligation  in  no 
case  to  exercise  the  elective  franchise.  This  per- 
suasion is  part  and  parcel  of  the  tenet  which  it  is 
believed  they  have  embraced,  that  as  Christians 
have  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  the 
spirit  of  God  to  guide  them,  all  human  govern- 
ments, as  necessarily  including  the  idea  of  force  to 
secure  obedience,  are  not  only  superfluous,  but  un- 
lawful encroachments  on  the  Divine  government 
as  ascertained  from  the  sources  above  mentioned. 
Therefore  they  refuse  to  do  anything  voluntarily 
that  would  be  considered  as  acknowledging  the 
laAvful  existence  of  human  governments.  Deny- 
ing to  civil  governments  the  right  to  use  force, 
they  easily  deduce  that  family  governments  have 


120  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

no  such  right.  They  carry  out  the '  non-resistant ' 
theory.  To  the  first  ruffian  who  would  demand 
our  purse  or  oust  us  from  our  house,  they  are  to 
be  unconditionally  surrendered  unless  moral  sua- 
sion be  found  sufficient  to  induce  him  to  desist 
from  his  purpose.  Our  wives,  our  daughters,  our 
sisters,  our  mothers,  we  are  to  see  set  upon  by  the 
most  brutal,  without  any  effort  on  our  part  except 
argument  to  defend  them !  And  even  they  them- 
selves are  forbidden  to  use  in  defence  of  their 
purity  such  powers  as  God  has  endowed  them  with 
for  its  protection,  if  resistance  should  be  attended 
with  injury  or  destruction  to  the  assailant.  In 
short,  the  '  no-government '  doctrines,  as  they  are 
believed  now  to  be  embraced,  seem  to  strike  at 
the  root  of  the  social  structure,  and  tend,  so  far 
as  I  am  able  to  judge  of  their  tendency,  to  throw 
society  into  entire  confusion  and  to  renew,  under 
the  sanction  of  religion,  scenes  of  anarchy  and 
license  that  have  generally  hitherto  been  the  off- 
spring of  the  rankest  infidelity  and  irreligion.'  " 

Again,  he  wrote :  "  The  non-government  doct- 
rine, stripped  of  its  disguise,  is  worse  than  Fanny- 
Wrightism,  and,  under  a  Gospel  garb,  it  is  Fanny - 
Wrightism  with  a  white  frock  on.  It  goes  to 
the  utter  overthrow  of  all  order,  yea,  of  all  purity. 
When  carried  out,  it  goes  not  only  for  a  com- 
munity of  goods,  but  a  community  of  wives. 
Strange  that  such  an  infidel  theory  should  find 
votaries  in  New  England  ! " 

The  editors  of  the  "History  of  Woman  Suf- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  121 

frage "  say  in  their  opening  chapter :  "  Among 
the  immediate  causes  that  led  to  the  demand  for 
the  equal  political  rights  of  women,  in  this  coun- 
try, we  may  note  these :  First,  the  discussion  in 
several  of  the  State  legislatures  of  the  property 
rights  of  married  women ;  Second,  the  great  edu- 
cational work  that  was  accomplished  by  the  able 
lectures  of  Frances  Wright,  on  political,  religious, 
and  social  questions.  Ernestine  L.  Kose,  follow- 
ing in  her  wake,  equally  liberal  in  her  religious 
opinions,  and  equally  well-informed  on  the  science 
of  government,  helped  to  deepen  and  perpetuate 
the  impression  Frances  Wright  had  made  on  the 
minds  of  unprejudiced  hearers.  Third,  and  above 
all  other  causes  of  the  Woman-Suffrage  movement, 
was  the  Anti-slavery  struggle  in  this  country." 
By  referring  to  the  columns  of  the  secular  and 
religious  press  of  that  period,  we  find  that  most  of 
the  respectable  and  representative  opinion  of  the 
country  was  "  prejudiced."  Halls  and  assembly 
rooms  in  all  the  cities  were  closed  against  Fanny 
Wright,  not  only  because  her  doctrines  were 
absolutely  infidel  and  materialistic,  but  because 
they  Avere  deemed  subversive  of  law,  order,  and 
decency.  The  better  portion  of  society  in  the 
United  States  was  of  one  mind  in  its  estimate  of 
"  The  Pioneer  Woman  in  the  Cause  of  Woman's 
Eights,"  as  she  was  called.  In  the  columns  of 
"  The  Free  Inquirer,"  a  newspaper  which  she  and 
Eobert  Dale  Owen  established  and  edited  in  New 
York  City  in  1829,  she  attacked  religion  in  every 


122  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

form,  marriage,  the  family,  and  the  State.  She 
pretended  to  no  basis  of  scientific  investigation, 
but  in  a  brilliant  flood  of  words  endeavored  to 
sweep  away  faith  in  the  Bible,  the  home,  the  He- 
public,  in  favor  of  negation,  communism,  free  love. 
I  have  place  for  but  a  single  quotation  from  one 
of  her  "  Fables,"  published  in  the  "  Free  Inquir- 
er." It  will  show  the  drift  of  her  work  in  one 
direction : 

" '  Is  my  errand  sped,  and  am  I  a  master  on 
earth  \ '  said  the  infernal  king  (Pluto).  '  Even  as 
I  promised,'  said  the  Fury.  '  Love  hath  forsaken 
the  earth.  Under  the  form  of  religion  I  aroused 
the  fears  and  commanded  the  submission  of  mor- 
tals ;  and  our  imp  now  reigns  on  earth  in  the  place 
of  Love,  under  the  form  of  Hymen.'  Pluto  smiled 
grimly,  and  smote  his  thigh  in  triumph.  '  Well 
conceited,  well  executed,  daughter  of  Night.  Our 
empire  shall  not  lack  recruits,  now  that  innocence 
is  exchanged  for  superstition,  and  the  true  affec- 
tion of  congenial  and  confiding  hearts  is  replaced 
by  mock  ceremonies  and  compulsory  oaths  ! ' ' 

Frances  Wright  had  founded,  in  1825,  at  Na- 
shoba,  Tennessee,  a  community  that  had  for  its 
professed  aim  the  elevation  and  education  of  the 
Southern  negroes.  In  describing  her  object,  Miss 
Wright  said :  "  No  difference  will  be  made  in  the 
schools  between  the  white  children  and  the  chil- 
dren of  color,  whether  in  education  or  in  any  other 
advantage.  This  establishment  is  founded  on  the 
principle  of  community  of  property  and  labor: 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  123 

these  fellow-creatures,  that  is,  the  blacks,  admitted 
here,  requiting  these  services  by  services  equal  or 
greater,  by  filling  occupations  which  their  habits 
render  easy,  and  which  to  their  guides  and  assist- 
ants might  be  difficult  or  unpleasing."  This  form 
of  helotism  flourished  but  three  years  on  Ameri- 
can soil.  It  is  doubly  interesting  as  containing 
the  germs  of  communism  and  anti-slavery  that 
blended  themselves  in  the  beginnings  of  a  move- 
ment for  suffrage  which  was  directly  inspired  by 
Frances  Wright. 

The  editors  of  the  "  Suffrage  History  "  say  that 
"  above  all  other  causes  of  the  suffrage  movement, 
was  the  Anti-slavery  struggle  in  this  country." 
They  add:  "In  the  early  Anti-slavery  conven- 
tions, the  broad  principles  of  human  rights  were 
so  exhaustively  discussed,  justice,  liberty,  and 
equality  so  clearly  taught,  that  the  women  who 
crowded  to  listen,  readily  learned  the  lesson  of 
freedom  for  themselves,  and  early  began  to  take 
part  in  the  debates  and  business  affairs  of  all  as- 
sociations. And  before  the  public  were  aroused 
to  the  dangerous  innovation,  women  were  speak- 
ing in  crowded  promiscuous  assemblies.  The 
clergy  opposed  to  the  Abolition  movement  first 
took  alarm,  and  issued  a  pastoral  letter,  warning 
their  congregations  against  the  influence  of  such 
women.  The  clergy  identified  with  Anti-slavery 
associations  took  alarm  also,  and  the  initiative 
steps  to  silence  women,  and  to  deprive  them  of 
the  right  to  vote  in  the  business  meetings,  were 


1'24  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

soon  taken.  This  action  culminated  in  a  division 
in  the  Anti-slavery  Association.  The  question  of 
woman's  right  to  speak,  vote,  and  serve  on  com- 
mittee, not  only  precipitated  the  division  in  the 
ranks  of  the  American  Anti-slavery  society,  in 
1840,  but  it  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  World's 
Anti-slavery  Convention,  held  that  same  year  in 
London.  In  summoning  the  friends  of  the  slave 
from  all  parts  of  the  tAvo  hemispheres  to  meet  in 
London,  John  Bull  never  dreamed  that  woman, 
too,  would  answer  to  his  call.  Imagine,  then,  the 
commotion  in  the  conservative  Anti-slavery  cir- 
cles in  England  when  it  was  known  that  half  a 
dozen  of  those  terrible  women  who  had  spoken  to 
promiscuous  assemblies,  voted  on  men  and  meas- 
ures, prayed  and  petitioned  against  slavery,  women 
who  had  been  mobbed,  ridiculed  by  the  press,  and 
denounced  by  the  pulpit,  who  had  been  the  cause 
of  setting  all  the  American  Abolitionists  by  the 
ears,  and  split  their  ranks  asunder,  were  on  their 
way  to  England." 

These  quarrels,  stirred  up  through  the  un- 
seemly conduct  of  men  and  women,  as  we  have 
seen,  they  were  willing  to  precipitate  upon  a  con- 
vention in  a  foreign  land,  a  convention,  too, 
which  had  declared  its  desire  not  to  receive  them 
as  delegates.  Upon  the  calling  of  the  roll,  the 
meeting  was  thrown  into  excitement  and  confusion 
on  a  subject  foreign  to  that  which  brought  them 
together.  Wendell  Phillips  eloquently  pleaded 
for  the  admission  of  the  women.  The  English 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  125 

officers,  while  showing  their  personal  courtesy, 
begged  to  remind  them  that  the  Queen,  and  many 
ladies  in  various  stations,  were  represented  by 
male  delegates,  and  that  to  admit  the  American 
ladies  would  be  to  cast  a  slight  upon  their  own 
active  members,  many  of  whom  were  present. 
During  the  heated  discussion  Mr.  James  Fuller 
said :  "  One  friend  has  stated  that  this  question 
should  have  been  settled  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  Why,  it  was  so  settled,  and  in  favor  of 
the  women."  Mr.  James  G.  Birney  answered : 
"  The  right  of  the  women  to  sit  and  act  in  all 
respects  as  men  in  our  Anti-slavery  associations 
was  so  decided  in  the  Society  in  May,  1839,  but 
not  by  a  large  majority,  which  majority  was 
swelled  by  the  votes  of  the  women  themselves. 
I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  a  gentleman  in 
New  York  (Lewis  Tappan)  communicating  the 
fact  that  the  persistence  of  the  friends  of  promis- 
cuous female  representation  in  pressing  that  prac- 
tice on  the  American  Anti-Slavery  society,  at  its 
annual  meeting  on  the  12th  of  last  month,  had 
caused  such  disagreement  that  he,  and  others  who 
viewed  the  subject  as  he  did,  were  deliberating  the 
question  of  seceding  from  the  old  organization." 

Lewis  Tappan,  a  founder  of  the  American  Mis- 
sionary Society,  was  intimately  connected  with 
his  brother  Arthur  in  all  anti-slavery  work. 
Arthur  was  a  founder  of  the  American  Tract 
Society,  and  of  Oberlin  College,  and  a  benefactor 
of  Lane  Seminary.  He  established  "  The  Ernan- 


126  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

cipator,"  and  was  president  of  the  American  Anti- 
Slavery  Society  until  compelled,  with  his  brother 
Lewis,  to  withdraw  on  account  of  the  conduct  of 
the  no-government  men  and  women,  and  take 
nearly  all  the  Society  with  him. 

When  the  vote  was  taken  in  the  London  meet- 
ing the  women  were  excluded  on  the  ground  that 
"it  being  contrary  to  English  usage,  it  would 
subject  them  to  ridicule  and  prejudice  their 
cause." 

George  Thompson  then  said :  "  I  hope,  as  this 
question  is  now  decided,  that  Mr.  Phillips  Avill 
give  us  the  assurance  that  we  shall  proceed  with 
one  heart  and  one  mind."  Mr.  Phillips  replied, 
"  I  have  no  doubt  of  it.  There  is  no  unpleasant 
feeling  on  our  part.  All  we  asked  was  an  ex- 
pression of  opinion ;  we  shall  now  act  with  the 
utmost  cordiality." 

But  Mr.  Phillips  had  reckoned  without  his  host 
and  hostesses.  Mr.  Garrison  had  not  been  pres- 
ent at  the  discussion,  but  he  arrived  at  this  junct- 
ure and  took  his  seat  with  the  excluded  dele- 
gates. During  a  twelve-days'  discussion  of  the 
momentous  cause  that  had  called  them  together, 
which  he  had  professed  especially  to  champion, 
he  took  not  the  slightest  part.  Such  was  his 
mistaken  zeal  that  he  was  willing  so  to  stultify 
himself,  and  the  women  were  willing  to  applaud 
him  in  so  doing.  The  spirit  that  looked  upon 
the  American  Constitution  as  "  a  covenant  with 
death  and  an  agreement  with  hell "  was  there. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  127 

The  spirit  that  defied  all  authority  and  could 
confound  liberty  of  conscience  with  the  formal 
acts  of  courtesy  between  man  and  man,  was  there. 
The  spirit  that  took  for  its  motto  "  You  cannot 
shut  up  discord"  was  there.  And  out  of  these 
combined  elements,  trained  in  the  school  of 
thought  that  had  treated  as  tyranny  the  religious 
and  civil  liberty  of  the  United  States,  grew  di- 
rectly the  Woman-Suffrage  movement.  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton  was  not  a  delegate.  The  delegates 
were  Abby  Kelly,  Esther  Moore,  and  Lucretia 
Mott.  Mrs.  Stanton  was  a  bride,  and  in  the  im- 
mediate party  on  this,  their  wedding  trip,  was 
Mr.  Birney,  her  husband's  special  friend.  The 
writers  of  the  "  History "  say :  "  As  the  ladies 
were  not  allowed  to  speak  in  the  Convention,  they 
kept  up  a  brisk  fire,  morning,  noon,  and  night,  on 
the  unfortunate  gentlemen  wrho  were  domiciled 
at  the  same  house."  Mrs.  Stanton  had  not  been 
identified  with  any  of  these  abolition  quarrels ; 
but  she  records  that  now  she  took  her  full  share 
of  the  "firing,"  notwithstanding  her  husband's 
"  gentle  nudges  under  the  table"  and  Mr.  Birney's 
ominous  frowns  across  it.  In  the  volume  entitled 
"  Woman's  Work  in  America,"  in  a  contribution 
called  "Woman  in  the  State,"  written  by  Mrs. 
Mary  A.  Livermore,  she  says :  "  The  leaders  in 
the  new  [suffrage]  movement,  Lucretia  Mott  and 
Mrs.  Stanton,  with  their  husbands,"  did  thus  and 
so  in  originating  it.  Lucretia  Mott's  husband 
was  with  her  as  a  silent  member  of  the  conven- 


128  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

tions,  but  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton's  husband  is 
conspicuous  for  his  absence  from  every  list  of 
officers  or  attendants,  from  the  inception  of  the 
Suffrage  movement  until  his  death.  He  may  have 
been  in  perfect  sympathy  with  his  wife ;  but 
since  the  names  of  all  the  men  already  mentioned 
in  connection  with  the  mad  "  no-civil,  no-family, 
no-personal  government "  movement,  do  appear, 
and  his  does  not,  it  is  impossible  not  to  challenge 
Mrs.  Livermore's  statement.  The  last  reference 
to  him  in  the  "  History  "  was  as  voting  on  the 
occasion  of  the  London  meeting,  in  favor  of  the 
women's  admission  to  the  World's  Convention. 
No  mention  is  made  of  any  speech,  or  of  reasons 
given.  Certain  it  is,  that  while  Mr.  Garrison 
became  the  conspicuous  standard-bearer  for  the 
Woman's  Rights  movement,  Mr.  Stanton  became 
one  of  the  conspicuous  bearers  of  the  standard  of 
the  Free  Soil  and  Republican  parties,  which  in- 
cluded some  of  Anti-slavery's  staunchest  friends, 
who  were  denounced  by  Garrison  as  its  foes. 

Thus  it  seems  evident  to  me  that  the  Woman- 
Suffrage  movement  no  more  grew  logically  out 
of  the  great  discussions  on  human  bondage  which 
began  with  Washington,  Jefferson,  Adams,  Frank- 
lin, Hamilton,  and  John  Jay,  and  ended  with 
Sumner,  Seward,  and  Lincoln,  than  the  communes 
of  this  country  grew  out  of  the  utterances  of  the 
Fathers  based  on  the  declaration  that  "  All  men 
are  created  equal,  and  are  endowed  with  certain 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  129 

inalienable  rights,  among  which,  are  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

It  was  among  those  whose  mistaken  zeal  and 
wild  conduct  were  most  mischievous,  that  the 
Suffrage  sentiment  gathered  head.  Their  lack  of 
judgment  in  defying  the  opinions  of  their  own 
sex,  as  well  as  of  the  other,  their  wrapt  forget- 
fulness  of  proprieties,  which  incited  mobs  and 
proved  a  fine  tool  for  the- frenzy  of  so-called  social 
reformers,  brought  contempt  upon  womanhood 
as  well  as  upon  the  cause  they  advocated.  Women, 
in  the  churches  and  out,  were  the  strength  of  the 
Anti-slavery  movement ;  but  not  these  women. 
As  to  the  notable  meeting  in  London,  had  the  dele- 
gates been  the  highest  and  largest  minded  and 
most  cultured  of  their  sex,  and  had  their  cause 
been  the  noblest,  they  and  it  would  have  been 
dishonored  by  the  method  of  its  presentation. 
American  women  of  to-day  would  no  more  ap- 
plaud such  conduct  than  did  those  of  fifty  years 
ago.  Women  have  won  lasting  public  favor  and 
place,  while  Suffrage  has  wron  an  uneasy  footing 
by  unenviable  methods. 

This  survey  enables  us  to  understand  what 
otherwise  would  seem  most  strange,  how  the 
women  of  the  Suffrage  movement,  in  claiming  the 
right  of  suffrage,  ignored  the  duties  and  powers 
based  upon  and  connected  with  it — those  that 
formed  the  defence  which  made  possible  any  such 
nation  as  ours.  Added  to  the  extreme  Quaker 
doctrine  of  peace-at-any-price,  was  the  fanatical 
9 


130  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

notion  of  the  sinf  ulness  of  all  war,  all  use  of  phys- 
ical force,  and  a  cool  assumption  that  opinion  was 
law.  Mrs.  Maria  Chapman  read,  at  one  of  the 
early  Woman's-Rights  conventions,  a  string  of 
verses  that  reveals  the  absurdity  of  the  situation. 
It  was  in  reply  to  "  A  Clerical  Appeal,"  issued  by 
the  Rev.  Nehemiah  Adams,  whose  "  South-Side 
View  of  Slavery "  received  more  Anti-slavery 
attention  than  it  deserved,  for  it  expressed  only 
his  own  fantastic  ideas.  In  the  "  Appeal "  he 
maintains  that  women  should  paint  in  water  colors 
only,  not  in  oil.  Mrs.  Chapman  says  : 

"  Our  patriot  fathers,  of  eloquent  fame, 

Waged  war  against  tangible  forms  ; 
Aye,  their  foes  were  men — and  if  ours  were  the  same, 

We  might  speedily  quiet  their  storms  ; 
But,  ah  I  their  descendants  enjoy  not  such  bliss, 
The  assumptions  of  Britain  were  nothing  to  this. 

"  Could  we  but  array  all  our  force  in  the  field, 

We'd  teach  these  usurpers  of  power 
That  their  bodily  safety  demands  they  should  yield, 

And  in  presence  of  womanhood  cower  ; 
But  alas !  for  our  tethered  and  impotent  state, 
Chained  by  notions  of  knighthood — we  can  but  debate." 


"  Oh  !  shade  of  the  prophet  Mahomet,  arise  ! 

Place  woman  again  in  her  '  sphere,' 
And  teach  that  her  soul  was  not  born  for  the  skies, 

But  to  flutter  a  brief  moment  here. 
This  doctrine  of  Jesus,  as  preached  up  by  Paul, 
If  embraced  in  its  spirit  will  ruin  us  all." 

Mention   of  Mrs.   Chapman  recalls  her  attitude 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  131 

toward  Frederick  Douglass  and  the  further  fact 
that  he  became  an  advocate  of  Suffrage.  In  his 
"Life  and  Times"  he  says:  "I  could  not  meet 
her  [Mrs.  Stanton's]  arguments  except  with  the 
shallow  plea  of  '  custom,'  '  natural  division  of 
duties,'  '  indelicacy  of  woman's  taking  part  in 
politics,'  '  the  common  talk  of  woman's  sphere,' 
and  the  like,  all  of  which  that  able  woman 
brushed  away  by  those  arguments  which  no  man 
has  yet  successfully  refuted."  Mr.  Douglass 
might  have  called  to  mind  the  fact,  to  the  recog- 
nition of  which  he  had  been  so  thoroughly  con- 
verted, and  which  he  set  forth  on  page  460  of  his 
book,  when  he  wrote  :  "  I  insisted  that  the  liberties 
of  the  American  people  were  dependent  upon  the 
ballot-box,  the  jury-box,  and  the  cartridge-box." 
He  forgot  that  Mrs.  Stanton,  in  defiance  of  those 
social  laws  that  had  weight  with  him,  was  asking 
to  use  the  first,  to  use  partially  the  second,  and 
to  ignore  the  third,  on  which  both  of  the  others 
depend  for  continuance. 

The  "  History  "  is  dedicated  to  Harriet  Martineau 
(among  other  women)  as  one  who  influenced  the 
starting  of  the  Suffrage  movement.  Turning  to 
Miss  Martineau's  "  Society  in  America,"  published 
in  1837,  I  find  the  following  in  her  account  of  the 
Anti-slavery  movement  in  the  United  States :  "  The 
progress  of  the  Abolition  question  within  three 
years  throughout  the  whole  of  the  rural  districts  of 
the  North,  is  a  far  stronger  testimony  to  the  virtue 
of  the  nation  than  the  noisy  clamor  of  a  portion  of 


132  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

the  slaveholders  of  the  South,  and  the  merchant 
aristocracy  of  the  North,  and  the  silence  of  the 
clergy,  against  it.  The  nation  must  not  be  judged 
of  by  that  portion  whose  worldly  interests  are 
involved  in  the  maintenance  of  the  anomaly  ;  nor 
yet  by  the  eight  hundred  flourishing  Abolition 
societies  of  the  North,  with  all  the  supporters 
they  have  in  unassociated  individuals.  If  it  be 
found  that  the  five  Abolitionists  who  first  met  in 
a  little  chamber  five  years  ago,  to  measure  their 
moral  strength  against  this  national  enormity, 
have  become  a  host  beneath  whose  assaults  the 
vicious  institution  is  rocking  to  its  foundations, 
it  is  time  that  slavery  was  ceasing  to  be  a  national 
reproach." 

An  observer  who  could  be  made  to  believe  that 
these  five  Abolitionists  had  really  accomplished 
more  toward  the  overthrow  of  slavery  than  eight 
hundred  flourishing  Abolition  societies  and  their 
outside  supporters,  and  that  the  great  body  of 
clergymen  were  silent,  because  they  did  not  adopt 
the  metKods  of  the  five  who  set  themselves  against 
church  and  state,  shows  a  credulity  that  leads  one 
to  question  the  information  and  the  conclusions 
on  which  her  judgment  of  the  relation  of  Ameri- 
can women  to  the  Republic  were  based. 

As  a  proof  that  when  women  entered  into 
public  work  in  a  womanly  way  they  found  sup- 
port from  the  church  and  the  Abolitionists,  we 
may  point  to  perhaps  the  first  organized  charitable 
and  industrial  work  done  among  women  in  this 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY,   133 

country.  In  1834  Mrs.  Charles  Hawkins,  of  New 
York  City,  had  convened  in  the  Third  Free  Church, 
corner  of  Houston  and  Thompson  streets,  a  meet- 
ing which  resulted  in  the  immediate  formation  of 
"  The  Moral  Reform  Society."  Clergymen  who 
were  in  sympathy  with  the  movement  addressed 
the  meeting.  "  The  Female  Guardian  Society  " 
was  founded  by  them  a  year  later,  and  a  news- 
paper \vas  established  to  present  its  claims.  The 
officers  were  women.  They  visited  the  Tombs, 
and  held  weekly  prayer-meetings.  They  secured 
the  legislation  necessary  to  bring  about  the  separa- 
tion of  men  and  women  in  the  city  prisons,  and 
the  appointment  of  matrons  for  the  women.  In 
1853  they  procured  an  enactment  "  whereby  dis- 
sipated and  vicious  parents,  by  habitually  neglect- 
ing due  care  and  provision  for  their  offspring, 
shall  forfeit  their  natural  claim  to  them,  and 
whereby  such  children  shall  be  removed  from 
them  and  placed  under  better  influences  till  the 
claim  oi  the  parents  shall  be  re-established  by 
continued  sobriety,  industry,  and  general  good  con- 
duct." They  secured  the  passage  of  the  Truant 
Act,  and  the  appointment  of  Truant  Officers. 
Mr.  Lewis  Tappan  was  not  only  the  auditor 
for  the  organization,  but  gave  effective  help  by 
suggestions  that  led  to  the  establishment  of  the 
first  Home  for  the  Friendless,  of  which  there  are 
now  seven  in  charge  of  the  society.  In  1854, 
Industrial  schools  were  added.  Cooking,  house- 
keeping, kindergarten,  and  fresh-air  work  de- 


134  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

veloped  rapidly.  There  are  now  twelve  indus- 
trial schools,  where  six  thousand  children  are 
taught.  The  report  of  the  first  semi-annual  meet- 
ing, held  in  Utica,  N.  Y.,  is  in  quaint  contrast  to 
the  reports  of  the  first  Suffrage  meetings.  They 
say  :  "  The  utmost  harmony  and  union  of  feeling 
have  characterized  all  the  proceedings,  and  as  we 
looked  around  and  saw  the  intelligence  and  piety 
and  moral  worth  that  was  assembled  there,  and 
listened  to  the  discussion  of  subjects  of  practical 
importance,  while  every  one  was  manifestly  seek- 
ing to  know  and  do  her  duty,  we  could  not 
but  feel  that  the  most  determined  opposer  of 
'  women's  meetings '  would  have  found  nothing 
to  censure  had  he  been  present.  There  has  been 
no  frivolity,  no  fanaticism,  no  disorder.  "We  are 
sure  that  not  a  wife  or  mother  was  there  who  was 
not  at  least  as  well  disposed  and  prepared  to  dis- 
charge her  relative  duties  as  she  would  have  been 
if  she  had  kept  at  home." 

Upon  the  great  cause  of  Temperance,  also,  the 
Woman-Suffrage  movement  early  laid  a  blighting 
hand.  As  Avill  be  remembered,  total  abstinence 
was  one  of  the  doctrines  to  which  many  of 
the  no-government,  common-property,  men  and 
women  were  pledged.  Western  and  Central  New 
York  has  been  the  birthplace  of  some  of  the  wild- 
est and  most  destructive  movements  that  our 
social  life  has  witnessed.  If  the  year  1848,  which 
saw  the  beginnings  of  the  Woman-Suffrage  move- 
ment, was  wonderful  for  revolutions  and  insurrec- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  135 

tions  the  world  over,  the  years  that  preceded 
it  were  remarkable,  especially  in  this  country  and 
this  State,  for  some  of  the  maddest  vagaries  that 
ever  have  been  known  here.  There  and  then 
arose  the  Shaker  excitement,  so  fantastic  that 
only  now  and  then  was  the  outside  world  per- 
mitted to  know  what  was  being  done.  Then  and 
there  Fourierism  found  its  most  fruitful  field,  arid 
of  the  dozen  or  more  communities  that  were 
started,  several  united  in  forming,  near  Rochester, 
an  Industrial  Union.  John  Collins  started  a  num- 
ber of  vague  branches  of  what  the  Fourierites 
called  the  "  no-God,  no-government,  no-mar- 
riage, no-money,  no-meat,  no-salt,  no-pepper  "  sys- 
tem of  community.  Here  John  H.  Noyes,  under 
the  guise  of  a  new  heaven  on  an  old  earth,  es- 
tablished his  foul  community  at  Oneida.  There 
and  then  the  Millerite  madness  sent  whole  con- 
gregations into  the  cemeteries,  in  white  gowns, 
to  await  the  sounding  of  the  trump  of  Gabriel. 
There  and  then  arose  the  great  spiritualistic  move- 
ment that  began  in  Wayne  County  with  the  Fox 
family,  became  famous  as  the  Eochester  Knock- 
ings,  and  blossomed  into  communities  in  which 
"  Free  Love "  grew  out  of  "  Individual  Sover- 
eignty." Then  and  there,  in  Wayne  County, 
Joseph  Smith  pretended  that  the  Angel  Maroni 
had  shown  him,  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Many  of 
these  movements  were  in  sympathy  with  Woman 
Suffrage,  and  workers  in  them  early  found  their 
way  into  its  ranks. 


136  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

In  the  midst  of  the  Anti-slavery  excitement, 
secret  temperance  organizations  were  formed 
among  the  women  in  New  York  State,  known  as 
the  "  Daughters  of  Temperance."  "  Finding,"  as 
they  said,  "  that  there  was  no  law  nor  gospel  in 
the  land,"  they  became  a  law  unto  themselves, 
and  visited  saloons,  where  they  broke  windows, 
glasses,  and  bottles,  and  threw  kegs  and  barrels 
of  liquor  into  the  streets.  A  few  were  arrested, 
but  they  were  soon  discharged.  As  time  went 
on,  these  secret  organizations  began  to  form  them- 
selves into  regular  bodies,  and  in  January,  1852, 
they  assembled  their  delegates  at  Albany  to 
claim  admission  to  the  State  Temperance  organ- 
ization, with  no  invitation  or  authority  but  their 
own.  Susan  B.  Anthony  was  the  first  speaker, 
and  when  the  convention  decided  not  to  hear  her, 
it  was  announced  that  they  would  withdraw  and 
hold  a  meeting  where  "  men  and  women  would 
be  equal,"  which  they  accordingly  did.  The 
movement  continued,  until,  three  months  later, 
Miss  Anthony  called  "The  New  York  State 
Temperance  Convention,"  of  which  Mrs.  Stanton 
was  elected  President.  Among  the  resolutions 
that  she  introduced  in  her  opening  speech,  were 
these  :  that  "  no  woman  remain  in  the  relation  of 
wife  to  a  confirmed  drunkard ; "  that  the  State 
should  be  petitioned  so  to  "  modify  its  laws  affect- 
ing marriage  and  the  custody  of  children,  that 
the  drunkard  shall  have  no  claims  on  either  wife 
or  child ; "  that  "  no  liquor  should  be  used  for 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  137 

culinary  purposes ; "  and  that  "  as  charity  begins 
at  home,  let  us  withdraw  from  all  associations  for 
sending  the  gospel  to  the  heathen  across  the 
ocean,  for  the  education  of  young  men  for  the 
ministry,  for  the  building  up  of  a  theological  aris- 
tocracy and  gorgeous  temples  to  the  unknown 
God,  and  devote  ourselves  to  the  poor  and  suffer- 
ing about  us.  Let  us  feed  and  clothe  the  naked 
and  hungry,  gather  children  into  schools,  and 
provide  reading-rooms  and  decent  homes  for 
young  men  and  women  thrown  alone  upon  the 
world."  The  organization  of  "  The  Woman's  New 
York  State  Temperance  Society "  was  formed, 
and  Mrs.  Stanton  was  elected  its  President.  She 
issued  an  appeal  to  the  women  of  the  State,  and 
sent  a  letter  to  the  Convention  at  Albany  which 
"  was  so  radical,  that  its  friends  feared  to  read 
it,"  but  Susan  B.  Anthony  finally  did  so.  They 
elected  as  delegates  to  the  "Men's  New  York 
State  Temperance  Convention,"  to  be  held  in 
Syracuse  in  June,  Susan  B.  Anthony,  Mrs.  Amelia 
Bloomer,  and  Gerrifc  Smith.  When  they  arrived 
they  were  met  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  J.  May,  who 
told  them  that  the  men  were  shocked  at  the  idea 
of  admitting  them,  and  said  that  he  was  com- 
missioned to  beg  them  to  withdraw.  They 
decided  to  present  their  credentials,  and  of  course 
the  stormy  scene  which  they  had  invited  followed 
their  action.  This  scene  was  repeated  in  every 
part  of  the  State,  the  agitators  figuring  upon 
their  own  platforms  as  martyrs  to  the  noble 


138  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

causes  of  Anti-slavery,  Temperance,  and  "Woman's 
Bights.  A  single  quotation  from  a  letter  of  Miss 
Anthony's,  written  at  this  time  to  the  league, 
shows  that  then,  as  now,  the  radical  woman  work- 
ers for  Prohibition  were  nothing  if  not  political. 
She  says :  "  And  it  is  for  woman  now,  in  the  pres- 
ent presidential  campaign,  to  say  to  her  father, 
husband,  or  brother,  '  If  you  vote  for  any  candi- 
date for  any  office  whatever,  who  is  not  pledged 
to  total  abstinence  and  the  Maine  law,  we  shall 
hold  you  alike  guilty  with  the  rum-seller.'  " 

In  January,  1853,  a  great  mass-meeting  was 
held  in  Albany  of  all  the  State  temperance 
organizations.  The  Woman's  society  met  in  a 
Baptist  church,  which  was  crowded  at  every  ses- 
sion. Miss  Anthony  presided.  Twenty-eight 
thousand  women  had  signed  petitions  for  prohib- 
itory legislation.  The  rules  of  the  House  were 
suspended,  and  the  women  were  invited  to  present 
them  at  the  speaker's  desk.  They  were  then 
invited  to  New  York,  and,  in  Metropolitan  Hall, 
addressed  a  large  audience,  as  well  as  in  the 
Broadway  Tabernacle  and  Knickerbocker  Hall, 
Brooklyn.  In  the  next  two  months  they  made 
successful  tours  of  many  cities  of  the  State.  But, 
like  Mr.  Garrison,  and  Stephen  Foster,  and  II.  C. 
Wright,  the  women  thought  that  if  they  were  not 
attacking  and  being  attacked  there  could  be  no 
"  progress "  or  "  reform."  They  demanded  di- 
vorce for  drunkenness,  they  denounced  wine  at 
private  tables,  and  called  on  the  women  to  leave 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  139 

all  church  organizations  where  "  clergymen  and 
bishops,  liquor-dealers,  and  wine-bibbers,  were 
dignified  and  honored  as  deacons  and  elders." 
They  denounced  the  church  for  its  u  apathy,"  and 
the  clergy  for  their  "  hostility  to  the  public  action 
of  women,"  and  they  soon  began  to  turn  the 
kindly  feeling  that  was  endeavoring  to  work  with 
them  into  enmity,  and  were  of  course  denounced 
in  their  turn. 

The  Society  decided  to  invite  men  into  their 
organization,  but  not  to  allow  them  to  hold  office 
or  to  vote.  This  they  did  for  a  year,  after  which 
men  were  admitted  to  full  membership.  The  first 
annual  meeting  of  the  Woman's  State  Temper- 
ance Society  was  held  in  Rochester,  June  1, 1853, 
Mrs.  Stanton  presiding,  and  the  attendance  was 
larger  than  they  had  had  at  any  time.  In  the 
course  -of  the  meetings  a  heated  debate  on  the 
subject  of  divorce  took  place.  Mrs.  Stanton  and 
Lucy  Stone  took  the  ground  that  it  was  "  not  only 
woman's  right,  but  her  duty,  to  withdraw  from 
all  such  unholy  relations,"  and  Mrs.  Nichols  and 
Antoinette  Brown  opposed  them. 

The  men  were  admitted  to  this  convention,  and, 
to  use  the  words  of  the  Avomen,  "  it  was  the  policy 
of  these  worldly-wise  men  to  restrict  the  debate 
on  Temperance  to  such  narrow  limits  as  to  dis- 
turb none  of  the  existing  conditions  of  society." 
This  farce  in  reform  soon  came  to  an  end,  and  the 
following  is  the  epitaph  pronounced  over  it  by  its 
founders  :  "  The  society,  Avith  its  guns  silenced 


140  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

on  the  popular  foes,  lingered  a  year  or  two,  and 
was  heard  of  no  more."  On  May  12,  the  friends 
of  Temperance  met  in  Dr.  Spring's  Old  Brick 
Church,  New  York  City.  A  motion  was  made 
that  all  gentlemen  present  be  admitted  as  dele- 
gates. Dr.  Trail,  of  New  York,  moved  an  amend- 
ment, that  the  words  "  and  ladies  "  be  added,  as 
there  were  delegates  present  from  the  "  Woman's 
State  Temperance  Society."  The  motion  was 
carried,  and  the  credentials  were  received.  A 
motion  was  then  made  that  Susan  B.  Anthony  be 
added  to  the  business  committee,  and  all  was  in 
an  uproar  at  once.  "  Mayor  Barstow  twice  asked 
that  another  chairman  be  appointed,  as  he  would 
not  preside  over  a  meeting  where  woman's  rights 
was  introduced,  or  women  were  allowed  to  speak." 
Some  of  the  gentlemen  present  said  that  '"the 
ladies  were  there  expressly  to  disturb."  The 
ministers  present,  like  the  laymen,  were  divided 
in  opinion  in  regard  to  the  admission  of  the  dele- 
gates ;  but  the  credentials  were  withdrawn,  and 
in  due  time  the  bearers  of  them  withdrew  also. 
The  writers  of  the  "  History  "  say :  "  Most  of  the 
liberal  men  and  women  now  withdrew  from  all 
temperance  organizations,  leaving  the  movement 
in  the  hands  of  time-serving  priests  and  politicians, 
who,  being  in  the  majority,  effectually  blocked 
the  progress  of  the  reform  for  the  time — de- 
stroying, as  they  did,  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
women  in  trying  to  press  it  as  a  political  meas- 
ure." Comparing  this  work  with  their  Anti- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  141 

slavery  campaign,  they  say  :  "  When  Garrison's 
forces  had  been  thoroughly  sifted,  and  only  the 
picked  men  and  women  remained,  he  soon  made 
political  parties  and  church  organizations  feel  the 
power  of  his  burning  Avords."  It  was  the  men 
and  women  from  whom  he  and  his  were  sifted 
who  spoke  the  burning  words  that  ended  in  burn- 
ing deeds  for  the  extinction  of  slavery  ;  and  thus 
it  was  with  Temperance.  There  remained  after 
the  "sifting"  many  societies,  of  one  of  which 
William  E.  Dodge  and  President  Mark  Hopkins 
were  chief  officers,  and  John  B.  Gough  was  prin- 
cipal orator. 

The  writers  of  the  "  History  "  further  say,  in 
regard  to  the  death  of  their  organization : 
"Henceforward  women  took  no  active  part  in 
temperance  until  the  Ohio  Crusade  revived  them 
all  over  the  nation,  and  gathered  the  scattered 
forces  into  the  Woman's  National  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union,  of  which  Frances  E.  Willard  is 
President."  This  is  a  mistake,  for  women  were 
very  active  in  connection  with  Temperance  socie- 
ties of  which  men  were  officers,  and  in  organiza- 
tions of  their  own,  before  and  after  the  W.  C. 
T.  U.  was  founded.  The  history  of  that  great 
body  furnishes  another  proof  of  the  injurious 
effect  of  the  Suffrage  movement  upon  the  cause 
of  Temperance.  In  1872  a  political  Temperance 
party  was  formed  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  which,  four 
years  later,  at  Cleveland,  became  the  Prohibition 
Party.  From  the  first,  this  party  inserted  a  plank 


142  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

in  its  platform  favoring  universal  suffrage,  and 
mentioning  especially  the  extension  of  suffrage  to 
women.  The  W.  C.  T.  U.  was  founded  as  a  non- 
denominational  and  non-partisan  body,  and  was 
divided  and  sub-divided  into  committees,  each 
having  charge  of  a  distinct  branch  of  philan- 
thropic work,  which  was  by  no  means  confined 
solely  to  Temperance  measures.  This  has  given 
the  body  great  working  strength,  and  its  efforts 
are  well  known.  Everything  except  its  Suffrage 
labor  has  had  rich  reward.  I  was  present  at  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  in  New  York  City 
(in  1886,  I  think),  and  witnessed  with  amazement 
the  high-handed  fashion  in  which  an  organization 
whose  constitution  forbade  political  coalition  was 
handed  over  to  the  Prohibition  Party,  pledged  to 
give  aid  and  comfort.  The  division  and  bitter 
feeling  that  resulted  were  a  serious  injury  to  the 
cause  of  Temperance.  In  her  contribution  to  the 
volume  entitled  "Woman's  Work  in  America," 
Miss  Willard  says :  "  After  ten  years'  experience, 
the  women  of  this  Crusade  became  convinced 
that  until  the  people  of  this  country  divide  at  the 
ballot-box,  on  the  foregoing  [Temperance]  issue, 
America  can  never  be  nationally  delivered  from 
the  dram-shop.  They  therefore  publicly  an- 
nounced their  devotion  to  the  Prohibition  Party, 
and  promised  to  lend  it  their  influence,  which, 
with  the  exception  of  a  very  small  minority,  they 
have  since  most  sedulously  done."  Writing  in 
"The  Outlook"  for  June  27,  1896,  Lady  Henry 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  143 

Somerset  says,  in  closing  a  sketch  of  Frances 
Willard :  "  The  Temperance  cause,  in  spite  of 
the  gigantic  strides  it  has  made  of  late  years 
toward  success,  is  still  relegated  to  the  shadowy 
land  of  unpopular  and  supposedly  impracticable 
and  visionary  reform." 

The  Temperance  cause  is  not  relegated  to  a 
shadowy  land,  but  has  just  taken,  in  many  places, 
notably  in  New  York  State,  another  gigantic 
stride  toward  success.  Prohibition  has  proved 
less  faithful  to  the  women  than  Miss  Willard  said 
the  women  had  proved  to  it ;  for,  in  the  struggle 
to  survive  the  attack  upon  its  life  made  by  Popu- 
lism in  1896,  it  refused  to  re-insert  the  Woman- 
Suif  rage  plank  in  its  platform.  Mrs.  Helen  Gougar 
bolted  with  the  Populists.  Mrs.  Boole,  of  New 
York,  in  behalf  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  moved  the  re- 
insertion in  the  platform  of  the  Woman-Suffrage 
plank,  which  had  been  stricken  out  when  it  was 
decided  to  make  prohibition  the  only  issue. 
Amidst  great  confusion,  Mrs.  Boole  was  obliged 
to  withdraw  her  motion,  and  when  she  changed 
her  claim  from  that  for  a  plank  in  the  platform 
to  one  for  a  resolution  which  declared  the  conven- 
tion to  be  in  favor  of  Woman  Suffrage,  it  was 
accepted  by  the  Committee  on  Resolutions,  and 
adopted  with  only  a  few  dissenting  votes.  In 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  party  has  had  a  Suffrage 
plank  since  1872,  when  it  began  to  be,  this  does 
seem  like  a  turning  of  the  back  rather  than  of  the 
cold  shoulder.  When  to  its  motto  "No  secta- 


144  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

rianism  in  religion,  no  sectionalism  in  politics," 
the  W.  C.  T.  U.  added  "  No  sex  in  citizenship,"  it 
fastened  itself  to  a  principle  that  has  not  pro- 
gressed. Its  Temperance  work  "for  God  and 
home  and  native  land "  has  gone  on ;  but  the 
political  alliance  and  effort  have  alike  proved 
futile.  A  striking  proof  of  this  fact  is  seen  in  the 
reports  of  the  non-political  sections  of  the  "W.  C. 
T.  U.  itself.  Police  matrons  have  been  placed 
through  their  petitions,  and  educational  and  phil- 
anthropic work  that  is  directly  in  the  line  of  doing 
away  with  the  liquor  evil,  and  is  worthy  of  high 
praise,  has  been  accomplished.  Miss  Willard, 
in  her  article  already  alluded  to,  reports  that 
"  under  the  leadership  of  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Hunt,  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.  has  secured  laws  requiring  scientific 
temperance  instruction  in  thirty  States."  The 
number  is  now  forty-two,  and  I  cannot  help  be- 
lieving that  Mrs.  Hunt  must  feel  more  hopeful  of 
the  favorable  results  to  temperance  of  well- 
directed  effort  to  influence  those  who  have  the 
power  to  execute  the  laws  they  pass,  than  Miss 
Willard  has  reason  to  feel  for  its  success  through 
prohibition  and  the  forceless  votes  of  women 
whose  power  in  philanthropy  is  fully  recognized 
and  cheerfully  acknowledged.  Women  talk  as  if 
the  solid  vote  of  their  sex  would  be  cast  in  favor 
of  temperance.  The  census  of  1890  reveals  the 
fact  that  there  were  in  that  year  three  times  as 
many  woman  hotel-keepers  as  in  1870,  and  seven 
times  as  many  saloon-keepers  and  bar-tenders. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  145 

Again,  in  the  Nation's  greatest  crisis,  "Woman 
Suffrage  showed  itself  to  be  the  antipodes  of 
woman's  progress.  Those  of  us  whose  once  sable 
locks  are  now  silvered  are  content  to  wear  the 
badge  of  years,  when  we  remember  that  we  were 
permitted  to  live  long  enough  ago  to  have  felt  the 
expansion  of  soul,  the  fervor  of  loyal  love,  the 
melting  power  of  an  overwhelming  universal 
sorrow  and  a  united  joy,  which  filled  the  mighty 
days  during  a  war  for  freedom  and  for  the  life  of 
theEepublic.  Most  of  the  women  of  the  land 
were  working  with  a  devotion  that  spared  neither 
strength  nor  life.  "What  was  the  "Woman-Suffrage 
Association  doing  ?  I  answer  in  their  own  words. 
In  their  "  History,"  they  say :  "  While  the  most 
of  women  never  philosophize  on  the  principles  that 
underlie  national  existence,  there  were  those  in 
our  late  war  who  understood  the  political  signifi- 
cance of  the  struggle  :  the  '  irrepressible  conflict 
between  freedom  and  slavery  ;  between  national 
and  State  rights.'  They  saw  that  to  provide  lint, 
bandages,  and  supplies  for  the  army,  while  the 
war  was  not  conducted  on  a  wise  policy,  was  labor 
in  vain  ;  and  while  many  organizations,  active, 
vigilant,  self-sacrificing,  were  multiplied  to  look 
after  the  material  wants  of  the  army,  these  few 
formed  themselves  into  a  National  Loyal  League 
to  teach  sound  principles  of  government,  and  to 
impress  on  the  nation's  conscience,  that  '  freedom 
to  the  slaves  was  the  only  way  to  victory.' "  They 
further  say  :  "  Accustomed  as  most  women  had 


10 


146  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

been  to  works  of  charity,  to  the  relief  of  outward 
suffering,  it  was  difficult  to  rouse  their  enthusiasm 
for  an  idea,  to  persuade  them  to  labor  for  a 
principle.  They  clamored  for  practical  work, 
something  for  their  hands  to  do ;  for  fairs,  sewing 
societies  to  raise  money  for  soldiers'  families,  for 
tableaux,  readings,  theatricals,  anything  but  con- 
ventions to  discuss  principles  and  to  circulate 
petitions  for  emancipation.  They  could  not  see 
that  the  best  service  they  could  render  the  army 
was  to  suppress  the  rebellion,  and  that  the  most 
effective  way  to  accomplish  that  was  to  transform 
the  slaves  into  soldiers.  The  "Woman's  Loyal 
League  voiced  the  solemn  lessons  of  the  war ; 
universal  suffrage,  and  universal  amnesty." 

The  Woman's  Loyal  League  "  voiced  "  the  fact 
that  the  professional  agitators  of  the  Suffrage 
movement  were  not  patriots.  Again  they  filled 
the  land  with  words,  while  all  the  others  of  their 
sex  were  blazoning  the  page  of  their  country's 
history  with  deeds  of  the  noblest  self-sacrifice,  the 
most  gentle  daring.  When  we  remember  with 
what  infinite  patience  the  great  emancipator  was 
waiting  for  the  hour  when  in  his  wisdom  he  dis- 
cerned that  he  could  "best  save  the  Union  by 
emancipating  all  the  slaves,"  we  realize  what 
added  sorrow  may  have  been  pressed  upon  his 
heart  by  the  foolish  petitions  that  the  League 
were  rolling  up  by  the  hundred  thousand  and 
sending  to  a  Congress  that  was  powerless  to  heed 
them  if  it  would.  Statesmen  and  Generals  were 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  147 

staggered  by  the  stupendous  task  of  guiding  a 
great  people  and  saving  the  Union  in  the  most 
powerful  rebellion  ever  known  ;  but  these  few 
women  knew  from  the  beginning  that  "  the  war 
was  not  conducted  on  a  wise  policy,"  and  that  to 
provide  for  the  army  was  "  labor  in  vain."  They 
joined  the  great  body  of  fault-finders  and  talkers, 
and  lifted  not  a  finger  in  practical  work.  And 
they  are  the  women  who  would  fain  vote  for  and 
become  America's  rulers !  The  "  other  women," 
who  were  narrow-minded  enough  to  prepare 
stores  and  raise  money  for  the  army,  and  do  such 
concrete  work  as  nursing  in  the  hospital  and  on 
the  field,  had  been  busy  for  nearly  two  years 
when  the  Suffrage  women  bestirred  themselves 
in  their  own  way.  In  March,  1863,  they  issued 
the  following  appeal  to  the  "  Loyal  Women  of  the 
Nation,"  which  I  quote  at  length  because  it  is  an 
excellent  example  of  their  methods,  which  "  began 
in  words  and  ended  in  words  :  " 

"  In  this  crisis  of  our  country's  destiny,  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  citizen  to  consider  the  peculiar 
blessings  of  a  republican  form  of  government,  and 
decide  what  sacrifices  of  wealth  and  life  are  de- 
manded for  its  defence  and  preservation.  The" 
policy  of  the  war,  our  whole  future  life,  depends 
on  a  clearly-defined  idea  of  the  end  proposed,  and 
the  immense  advantages  to  be  secured  to  ourselves 
and  all  mankind  by  its  accomplishment.  ~No 
mere  party  or  sectional  cry,  no  technicalities  of 
constitution  or  military  law,  no  mottoes  of  craft 


148  WOMAN  AND  TIIE  REPUBLIC. 

or  policy,  are  big  enough  to  touch  the  great  heart 
of  a  nation  in  the  midst  of  revolution.  A  grand 
idea,  such  as  freedom  or  justice,  is  needful  to 
kindle  and  sustain  the  fires  of  a  high  enthusiasm. 
At  this  hour  the  best  word  and  work  of  every 
man  and  woman  are  imperatively  demanded.  To 
man,  by  common  consent,  is  assigned  the  forum, 
camp,  and  field.  What  is  woman's  legitimate 
work,  and  how  she  may  best  accomplish  it,  is 
worthy  of  our  earnest  counsel  with  one  another. 
We  have  heard  many  complaints  of  the  lack  of 
enthusiasm  among  Northern  women ;  but,  when 
a  mother  lays  her  son  on  the  altar  of  her  country, 
she  asks  an  object  equal  to  the  sacrifice.  In  nurs- 
ing the  sick  and  wounded,  knitting  socks,  scrap- 
ing lint  and  making  jellies,  the  bravest  and  best 
may  weary  if  the  thoughts  mount  not  in  faith  to 
something  beyond  and  above  it  all.  v*Work  is 
worship  only  when  a  noble  purpose  fills  the  soul. 
Woman  is  equally  interested  and  responsible  with 
man  in  the  final  settlement  of  this  problem  of  self- 
government  ;  therefore  let  none  stand  idle  specta- 
tors now.  When  every  hour  is  big  with  destiny, 
and  each  delay  but  complicates  our  difficulties,  it 
is  high  time  for  the  daughters  of  the  Revolution, 
in  solemn  council,  to  unseal  the  last  will  and  tes- 
tament of  the  Fathers — lay  hold  of  their  birth- 
right of  freedom,  and  keep  it  a  sacred  trust  for 
all  coming  generations.  To  this  end  we  ask  the 
Loyal  Women  of  the  Nation  to  meet  in  the  church 
of  the  Puritans  (Dr.  Cheever's),  New  York,  on 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  149 

Thursday,  the  14th  of  May  next."  This  was  signed 
by  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  and  Susan  B.  An- 
thony, in  behalf  of  the  Woman's  Central  Com- 
mittee. 

Having  set  forth  their  belief  that  by  common 
consent  the  forum,  the  camp,  and  the  field  were 
assigned  to  men,  these  women  secured  a  forum 
from  which  to  promulgate  advice  and  direction  to 
the  men  who  were  indeed  allowed  possession  of 
the  camp  and  the  field.  After  a  speech,  in  which, 
among  other  things,  Miss  Anthony  said:  "In- 
stead of  suppressing  the  real  cause  of  the  war,  it 
should  have  been  proclaimed,  not  only  by  the 
people,  but  by  the  President,  Congress,  Cabinet, 
and  every  military  commander,"  she  presented 
resolutions,  which  included  this : 

"Resolved:  that  there  can  never  be  a  true 
peace  in  this  Republic  until  all  the  civil  and  politi- 
cal rights  of  all  citizens  of  African  descent  and  all 
women  are  practically  established." 

The  reading  of  the  resolutions  was  followed  by 
one  of  the  long,  acrimonious  debates  with  which 
those  who  read  the  reports  of  their  conventions 
are  familiar.  They  resented  it  bitterly  when 
Mrs.  Hoyt,  of  "Wisconsin,  said  :  "  The  women  of 
the  North  were  invited  here  to  meet  in  conven- 
tion, not  to  hold  a  Temperance  meeting,  not  to  hold 
an  Anti-slavery  meeting,  not  to  hold  a  "Woman's 
Bights  convention,  but  to  consult  as  to  the  best 
practical  way  for  the  advancement  of  the  loyal 
cause.  We  have  a  great  many  very  flourishing 


150  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Loyal  Leagues  throughout  the  "West,  and  we  have 
kept  them  sacred  from  Anti-slavery,  Woman's 
Eights,  Temperance,  and  everything  else,  good 
though  they  may  be.  In  our  League  we  have 
several  objects  in  view.  The  first  is,  retrench- 
ment in  household  expenses,  to  the  end  that  the 
material  resources  of  the  Government  may  be,  so 
far  as  possible,  applied  to  the  entire  and  thor- 
ough vindication  of  its  authority.  Second,  to 
strengthen  the  loyal  sentiment  of  the  people  at 
home,  and  instil  a  deeper  love  of  the  National  flag. 
The  third  and  most  important  object  is  to  write 
to  the  soldiers  in  the  field,  thus  reaching  nearly 
every  private  in  the  army,  to  encourage  and 
stimulate  him  in  the  way  that  ladies  know  how 
to  do."  After  expressions  of  strong  resentment, 
those  who  had  called  the  convention  returned  to 
their  generalizing  in  regard  to  the  duty  and  in- 
fluence of  woman,  and  to  denunciations  of  the 
Government  for  its  conduct  of  the  war.  The  res- 
olutions which  had  called  forth  the  strictures 
were  accepted,  and  Miss  Anthony  announced  that 
"The  resolution  recommending  practical  work 
was  not  yet  prepared."  It  was  written  at  a  busi- 
ness meeting  following,  and  read  thus : 

"  Eesolved,  that  we,  loyal  women  of  the  nation, 
do  hereby  pledge  ourselves  one  to  another,  in  a 
Loyal  League,  to  give  support  to  the  Government 
in  so  far  as  it  makes  the  war  a  war  for  freedom." 

If  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had  re- 
ceived no  more  practical  pledges,  from  no  more 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  151 

loyal  hearts  than  these,  there  would  have  been 
little  reward  for  the  patriotic  devotion  that  laid 
down  life  in  defence  of  the  Union.  A  sentiment 
that  was  often  expressed  by  the  Suffragist  was 
that  as  woman  had  no  vote  she  could  not  properly 
be  called  upon  to  be  loyal.  The  "practical" 
work  finally  accomplished  was  the  gathering  of 
another  monster  petition,  in  which  they  told 
President  Lincoln  that  "  Northern  power  and  loy- 
alty can  never  be  measured  until  the  purpose  of 
the  war  be  liberty  to  man."  To  the  close  of  the 
war  they  did  nothing  but  sign  such  petitions. 

I  turn  to  Dr.  Brockett's  great  book,  "  Woman 
in  the  Civil  War,"  and  I  find  recorded  the  names 
and  the  work  of  four  hundred  and  eighty-four 
women  who  gave  invaluable  and  honorable 
special  service,  some  of  them  even  to  the  sacrifice 
of  life  itself ;  and  of  all  this  number,  only  a  half 
dozen  are  known  in  Suffrage  annals. 

Cure  by  ballot  has  been  the  one  and  only 
remedy  suggested  by  Suffrage  conventions  for  all 
the  ills,  real  or  imaginary,  that  are  endured  by 
women.  As  long  ago  as  1854,  in  a  convention  in 
Philadelphia,  they  uttered  the  same  sentiment. 
In  commenting  upon  Mrs.  Jane  G.  Swisshelm's 
book,  "  Half  a  Century,"  they  say  :  "  While  ever 
and  anon  during  the  last  forty  years  Mrs.  Swiss- 
helm  has  seized  some  of  these  dilettante  literary 
women  with  her  metaphysical  tweezers,  and  held 
them  up  to  scorn  for  their  ridicule  of  the  Woman 
Suffrage  conventions,  yet  in  her  own  recently 


152  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

published  work,  in  her  mature  years,  she  vouch- 
safes no  words  of  approval  for  those  who  have 
inaugurated  the  greatest  movement  of  the  cent- 
uries. ...  It  is  quite  evident  from  her  last  pro- 
nunciamento  that  she  has  no  just  appreciation  of 
the  importance  and  dignity  of  our  demand  for 
justice  and  equality.  A  soldier  without  a  leg  is  a 
fact  so  much  more  readily  understood  than  all 
women  without  ballots,  and  his  loss  so  much  more 
readily  comprehended  and  supplied,  that  we  can 
hardly  blame  any  one  for  doing  the  work  of  the 
hour,  rather  than  struggling  a  lifetime  for  an 
idea.  Hence  it  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise  that 
most  women  are  more  readily  enlisted  in  the  sup- 
pression of  evils  in  the  concrete,  than  in  advocat- 
ing the  principles  that  underlie  them  in  the 
abstract,  and  thus  ultimately  choosing  the  broader 
and  more  lasting  work." 

In  her  "  Reminiscences,"  contributed  to  the 
"  History,"  Mrs.  Emily  Collins  says :  "  From  1858 
to  1869  my  home  was  in  Rochester,  K.  Y.  There, 
by  brief  newspaper  articles  and  in  other  ways,  I 
sought  to  influence  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
this  fundamental  reform.  In  1868  a  society  was 
organized  there  for  the  reformation  of  abandoned 
women.  At  one  of  its  meetings  I  endeavored  to 
show  how  futile  all  their  efforts  would  be  while 
women,  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  were  made  a 
subject  class." 

This  was  typical  action.  Thus  it  was  in  Anti- 
slavery,  thus  in  Temperance,  thus  in  the  Civil 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  153 

War,  and  thus  it  has  been  with  general  reforms. 
"What  Suffragists  have  deemed  to  be  an  abstract 
"  right "  has  prevented  them  from  taking  active 
part  in  any  efforts  put  forth  to  end  a  concrete 
wrong.  As  time  goes  on,  this  spirit  becomes 
more  injurious,  because  progress  is  carrying  phil- 
anthropy into  higher  fields  of  moral  action,  and 
in  so  doing  is  carrying  it  away  from  and  above 
the  plane  where  rests  the  ballot-box.  While  Suf- 
frage effort  is  directed  toward  keeping  all  issues 
in  the  political  arena,  the  trend  of  legislation  is 
to  take  them  out  of  politics.  By  the  public  votes 
of  men  and  the  private  votes  and  public  appeals 
of  women,  philanthropic  and  educational  matters 
are  being  removed  from  the  uncertainties  and 
fluctuations  of  party  action.  As  they  are  thus 
brought  out  of  the  sphere  where  woman  is  power- 
less and  into  that  in  which  it  is  natural  for  her 
to  act,  the  whole  force  of  sympathy,  and  her 
ability  to  picture  and  to  pursue  an  ideal,  are 
finding  exercise  and  are  hastening  the  day 
when  there  will  be  no  slavery,  no  drunkenness,  no 
war,  and  no  violation  of  woman's  chastity.  Dr. 
Jacobi,  in  her  volume,  says :  "  Why  should  we 
wonder  at  the  low  tone  which  habitually  pre- 
vails in  relation  to  public  affairs,  when  the 
women  who  stand  as  guardians  at  the  fountain 
sources  and  household  shrines  of  thought  are 
trained  to  believe  that  there  are  no  Rights,  but 
only  Privileges,  Expediencies,  Immunities  ?  Can 
those  who  cower  before  the  public  ridicule  which 


154  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

greets  the  enunciation  of  the  Eights  of  Women  ; 
who  are  habituated  to  stifle  generous  impulses  for 
their  own  larger  freedom  at  the  authoritative  dic- 
tation of  the  men  they  see  in  power, — can  such 
women  be  relied  upon  to  nerve  the  Nation's  heart 
for  generous  deeds  ? "  Who  were  trained  by 
women  at  the  fountain  sources  and  household 
shrines?  The  very  men  whom  they  now  see  in 
"  authoritative  dictation."  And  so  well  did  they 
train  them  that  when  both  are  called  upon  to 
nerve  the  nation's  heart  for  generous  deeds,  they 
act  together — the  trainer  and  the  trained — moved 
by  the  same  magnetic  impulse  of  a  noble  devotion. 
It  is  purely  gratuitous  to  assume,  because  women 
generally  have  discredited  the  dogma  of  Woman 
Suffrage,  that  they  have  therefore  no  just  concep- 
tion of  rights.  Women  are  as  ambitious,  as  self- 
assertive,  as  are  men.  They  deal  more  naturally 
with  abstractions,  and  are  more  tenacious  of  pur- 
pose. They  are  impatient  of  hindrance,  and  it  is 
inconsistent  with  facts  to  infer  that  they  have  been 
"  stifling  generous  impulses  for  their  own  larger 
freedom,"  at  the  dictation  of  their  own  sons.  The 
executive  power  and  wisdom  of  these  sons  they 
feel  to  be  the  very  thing  they  most  desire  for 
them,  a  reward  for  their  own  abounding  faith  and 
love.  Privileges,  Expediencies,  and  Immunities 
are  their  Eights.  How  well  fitted  such  rights  are 
to  enable  them  to  nerve  the  Nation's  heart  was 
seen  in  the  great  crisis  we  have  been  considering, 
when  the  ignoble  dogma  of  Suffrage  caused  its 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  PHILANTHROPY.  155 

believers  to  fail  in  generous  impulse  and  to  stand 
aloof  in  the  time  of  a  supreme  need. 

I  cannot  agree  with  Dr.  Jacobi  that  a  low  tone 
habitually  prevails  in  relation  to  public  affairs. 
The  guards  freshly  thrown  about  the  ballot,  and 
the  greater  watchfulness  over  entrance  to  citizen- 
ship, are  two  of  the  most  obvious  advances  at  this 
moment. 


CHAPTEK  Y. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND   THE    LAWS. 

IN  the  fourth  and  fifth  counts  of  the  Declaration 
of  Sentiments,  the  Suffragists  say  :  "  Having  de- 
prived her  of  this  first  right  of  a  citizen,  the  elec- 
tive franchise,  thereby  leaving  her  without  repre- 
sentation in  the  halls  of  legislation,  he  has  op- 
pressed her  on  all  sides."  "  He  has  made  her,  if 
married,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  civilly  dead." 

The  following  four  counts  all  refer  to  a  mar- 
ried woman's  civil  deadness ;  and  I  will  give  them 
in  order,  and  then  consider  the  five  counts  to- 
gether : 

"  He  has  taken  from  her  all  right  in  property, 
even  to  the  wages  she  earns."  "  He  has  made  her, 
morally,  an  irresponsible  being,  as  she  can  com- 
mit many  crimes  with  impunity,  provided  they  be 
done  in  the  presence  of  her  husband."  "  In  the 
covenant  of  marriage,  she  is  compelled  to  promise 
obedience  to  her  husband,  he  becoming,  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes,  her  master — the  law  giving 
him  power  to  deprive  her  of  her  liberty,  and  to 
administer  chastisement."  "  He  has .  so  framed 

the  laws  of  divorce,  as  to  what  shall  be  proper 
156 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        157 

causes,  and,  in  case  of  separation,  to  whom  the 
guardianship  of  the  children  shall  be  given,  as  to 
be  wholly  regardless  of  the  happiness  of  women 
—the  law,  in  all  cases,  going  upon  a  false  supposi- 
tion of  the  supremacy  of  man,  and  giving  all 
power  into  his  hands." 

That  the  women  did  not  find  themselves,  as 
might  be  supposed  from  their  charges,  living 
under  the  edicts  of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  proved  by 
their  hunt  through  statute-books  for  such  of  the 
eighteen  grievances  as  relate  to  laws.  They  also 
say  that  "  while  they  had  felt  the  insults  incident 
to  sex,  in  many  ways,  as  every  proud  thinking 
woman  must,  yet  they  had  not  in  their  own  ex- 
perience endured  the  coarser  forms  of  tyranny 
resulting  from  unjust  laws ;  but  had  souls  large 
enough  to  feel  the  wrongs  of  others."  Until  they 
knew  what  those  wrongs  were,  it  would  seem 
they  could  hardly  have  felt  for  them  intelligently. 
It  would  seem,  too,  that  the  great  body  of  Ameri- 
can women  were  also  unaware  that  they  had  been, 
and  were  still  being,  legally  and  morally  robbed, 
enslaved,  and  murdered.  In  fact,  Suffrage 
speakers  have  been  compelled  to  account  for  their 
unconcern  by  considering  it  the  result  of  long 
subjection,  and  at  the  same  time  have  had  to 
claim  that  these  stupid  beings  were  fit  to  rule 
with  and  over  men. 

While  the  counts  contain  concrete  statements, 
the  closing  clause — "  the  law  in  all  cases,  going 
upon  a  false  supposition  of  the  supremacy  of  man, 


158  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

and  giving  all  power  into  his  hands" — sets  forth 
an  abstract  idea  in  justification  of  which  they 
furnish  no  proof.  In  the  counts  as  they  stood  in 
the  Declaration  of  Sentiments,  the  general  laws 
were  not  accused  of  doing  any  injustice,  personal 
or  civil,  to  an  unmarried  woman,  except  in  refer- 
ence to  the  one  matter  of  withholding  the  vote, 
which  they  claimed  was  wrong  because  she  had 
an  inalienable  right  to  the  ballot  and  was  subject 
to  tax.  Not  a  personal  law  did  they  ask  to  have 
changed  for  her  protection.  They  recognized  the 
fact  that,  unless  she  was  married,  a  woman  in  the 
United  States  stood  upon  a  legal  equality  with 
man.  The  hue  and  cry  in  regard  to  a  married 
woman  was,  that  she  was  not  treated  as  iffemme 
sole.  Thefemme  sole  could  make  contracts  and 
wills,  sue  and  be  sued,  and  do  all  and  sundry  in 
her  own  name  that  her  brother  could  do.  With 
a  married  woman  the  situation  was  different. 
"Will  any  one  contend  that  in  the  past  the  married 
woman  has  been  held  in  less  honor  than  the  un- 
married ?  Can  it  be  thought  for  a  moment  that 
the  law-makers  expressed  their  contempt  for 
wives  and  mothers,  and  their  respect  for  daughters 
and  sisters  who  were  unmarried  ?  Tradition  and 
fact,  poetry  and  prose,  romance  and  reality,  all 
go  to  prove  that  the  reverential  feeling  of  the 
world  has  gathered  about  the  wife  and  the 
mother.  The  men  who  made  those  laws  turned 
for  their  ideals  of  abstract  justice  to  their  mothers' 
faith  and  teaching ;  and  it  seems  most  incongruous 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        159 

to  assume,  as  do  the  Suffrage  arguments,  that, 
while  all  the  laws  relating  to  women  were  tyran- 
nical at  some  point,  those  in  regard  to  married 
women  were  the  ones  wherein  men  embodied 
their  most  cruel  and  revengeful  feeling.  It  also 
appears  to  be  a  gratuitous  assumption  that  what- 
ever was  different  in  the  legal  treatment  of  men 
and  women  came  from  man's  belief  in  his  own 
supremacy,  especially  toward  the  wife  into  whose 
hands  he  had  committed  the  keeping  of  his  home 
and  his  honor. 

In  1881,  after  more  than  thirty  years  of  agi- 
tation of  the  subject,  the  Suffrage  leaders  said : 
"  The  condition  of  married  women  under  the 
laws  of  all  countries  has  been  essentially  that 
of  slaves,  until  modified  in  some  respects,  within 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  in  the  United 
States."  And  again  they  said  :  "  The  change  from 
the  old  common  law  of  England,  in  regard  to  the 
civil  rights  of  women,  from  1848  to  the  advance 
legislation  in  most  of  the  Northern  States  in  1880, 
marks  an  era  both  in  the  status  of  woman  as  a 
citizen  and  in  our  American  system  of  jurispru- 
dence. "When  the  State  of  New  York  gave 
married  women  certain  rights  of  property,  the 
individual  existence  of  the  wife  was  recognized, 
and  the  old  idea  that  husband  and  wife  are  one, 
and  that  one  the  husband,  received  its  death-blow. 
From  that  hour  the  statutes  of  the  several  States 
have  been  steadily  diverging  from  the  old  Eng- 
lish codes.  Most  of  the  Western  States  copied 


160  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

the  advance  legislation  of  New  York,  and  some 
are  now  even  more  liberal." 

This  sentence  contains  another  of  the  con- 
stantly recurring  instances  of  the  methods  by 
which  the  Suffrage  mind  jumps  to  unwarranted 
conclusions.  "When  the  State  of  New  York  gave 
married  women  certain  property  rights,  it  recog- 
nized their  legal  existence  in  a  new  way,  but  not 
their  individual  existence — that  had  been  recog- 
nized by  every  act  of  law  and  custom,  from  the 
registry  of  their  birth  to  that  of  their  marriage  or 
their  death.  Socially  and  civilly,  every  woman 
in  the  United  States  had  had  opportunity  to  make 
her  individuality  felt,  and  if  there  was  any  differ- 
ence in  advantage  in  respect  of  this,  it  was  sup- 
posed to  lie  with  the  married  woman.  So  true  is 
this,  that  Mrs.  Stanton  and  Mrs.  Mott  had  to  hunt 
for  oppressive  laws,  and  most  of  the  women  of 
this  land  have  no  real  sense  of  the  great  and 
liberal  change  in  laws  concerning  married  women 
since  1848.  I  am  no  more  approving  of  or  admir- 
ing the  old  English  common  law,  or  the  canon 
law,  concerning  women,  than  I  am  approving  of 
or  admiring  the  law  that  came  to  light  recently 
in  the  Transvaal  and  would  have  allowed  the 
torture  of  Jameson  and  his  men,  who,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  were  allowed  to  go  almost  unpunished. 
The  law  of  the  Dutch  Government  in  Africa 
belonged  to  the  Middle  Ages;  their  conduct 
belonged  to  to-day.  I  only  believe  that  at  the 
time  when  it  was  possible  for  one  man  to  frame 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        161 

for  another  man  such  laws  of  physical  and  mental 
torment  as  every  code  reveals,  their  laws  for 
women  were  the  best  they  could  devise,  and  were 
those  which  led  to  the  freedom  of  the  women  of 
to-day.  A  law  of  England -still  favors  only  the 
first-born  son,  and  he  only  because  he  is  the  first- 
born. What  wonder  that  girls  have  been  denied 
succession ;  and  what  an  evidence  of  man's  desire 
to  show  favor  and  not  the  "  insult  incident  to 
sex,"  that  he  has  placed  woman  on  thrones  upon 
which  he  has  had  to  sustain  her  by  main  force. 

There  is  no  need  that  I  should  darken  my  pages 
with  the  English  laws  concerning  married  women. 
The  Suffrage  leaders  have  spread  them  abroad ; 
Blackstone  says  they  were  intended  for  woman's 
protection  and  benefit,  and  adds  the  remark,  "  So 
great  a  favorite  is  the  female  sex  with  the  laws  of 
England."  If  I  quoted  them,  I  should  be  con- 
strained to  quote  barbarous  laws  concerning  men 
of  the  same  era,  and  to  note  the  lack  of  all  laws 
concerning  the  brute  creation ;  for  neither  of 
these  matters  is  touched  by  Suffrage  writers. 
Dr.  Jacobi  is  willing  to  say  that  "  in  the  eye  of 
the  law,  the  married  white  woman  in  the  North 
was  as  devoid  of  personality  as  the  African  slave 
in  the  South,"  and  she  also  says :  "  By  another 
error  of  interpretation,  certain  laws  which  remain 
on  the  statute-book,  or  which  have  been  recently 
added,  have  been  considered  so  peculiarly  favor- 
able to  women,  that  they  are  thought  to  prove  a 
legislative^tendency  to  grant  special  immunities  to 
ii 


162  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

women  so  long  as  they  consent  to  remain  unfran- 
chised."  Does  she  mean  to  say  that  the  law- 
makers have  asked  the  women  if  they  would 
consent  to  remain  unfranchised  ?  I  thought  that 
leaving  them  unfranchised  without  asking  their 
consent  was,  in  Suffrage  eyes,  the  very  front  of 
the  offending.  The  laws  that  remain  on  the 
statute-book,  and  those  that  have  been  recently 
added,  go  to  prove  to  my  mind  that  the  old  laws 
were  meant  to  be  generous  as  well  as  just; 
second,  that  the  trend  of  legislation  is  peculiarly 
favorable  to  woman ;  and,  thirdly,  that  those 
laws  which  between  man  and  man  might  be  looked 
upon  as  offsets  to  suffrage  equality,  between 
man  and  woman  could  not  be  so  considered. 
They  were,  therefore,  proper  immunities  for  per- 
sons whose  consent  was  not  asked  through  the 
vote  because,  in  the  nature  of  the  difference  be- 
tween the  sexes,  a  prime  requisite  for  compli- 
ance was  lacking.  Dr.  Jacob!  goes  on  to  say : 
"  The  fear  has  been  expressed  that  these  '  immu- 
nities '  and  '  privileges '  would  be  forfeited  were 
the  franchise  conferred.  And  this  fear  has 
actually  been  advanced  as  an  argument — as  the 
basis  of  protest  against  equal  suffrage."  Either 
the  law  is  tyrannical  to  women,  or  it  is  not.  If 
Suffrage  leaders  are  actually  talking  of  its  privi- 
leges and  immunities  to  women,  and  trying  to 
explain  them  away,  we  may  leave  the  burden  of 
proof  to  them.  But  as  to  the  gist  of  her  remark 
in  regard  to  the  connection  between  legal  privi- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        163 

leges  and  equal  suffrage  :  Fear  of  losing  the  legal 
immunities  that  are  granted  to  both  married  and 
unmarried  women  on  account  of  their  attitude  as 
wards  of  the  State  when  they  are  not  able  to 
assume  the  first  duty  implied  in  giving  up  the 
wardship — that  of  physical  defence  to  themselves 
and  others — is  a  most  legitimate  fear,  and  is  a 
sound  reason  for  protest  against  equal  suffrage. 
"Wrapped  up  with  the  legal  privileges  of  women 
are  those  of  their  children — the  rights  of  minors. 
For  boys,  special  privileges  cease  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one.  For  girls,  they  do  not.  Legal 
equality  would  set  the  boy  and  the  girl  on  the 
same  level  at  once.  The  law  of  equality  could 
know  no  such  thing  as  "  exemption "  for  the 
unmarried  woman,  or  "  dower  right "  or  "  main- 
tenance "  for  the  married  woman  that  would  not 
be  equally  binding  on  both  husband  and  wife.  In 
Germany,  rich  American  women  are  maintaining 
their  land-poor  husbands  under  legal  stress,  "  in 
the  style  to  which  they  have  been  accustomed," 
because  the  law  of  Germany  is  "  equal  "  in  respect 
to  property  maintenance  of  husband  and  wife. 
In  Ohio,  where  Suffrage  agitation  has  been  per- 
sistent, the  legislature  in  1894  passed  an  act 
"  enabling  a  husband,  as  well  as  a  wife,  to  sue  and 
obtain  alimony  pending  divorce  proceedings." 

We  began  by  talking  of  legal  disabilities,  and, 
led  by  the  Suffragists  themselves,  are  already 
discussing  legal  immunities. 

The  editors  of  the  "  History  "  say :  "  The  laws 


164  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

affecting  woman's  civil  rights  have  been  greatly 
improved  during  the  past  thirty  years,  but  the 
political  demand  has  made  but  questionable  prog- 
ress, though  it  must  be  counted  as  the  chief  influ- 
ence in  modifying  the  laws.  The  selfishness  of 
man  was  readily  enlisted  in  securing  woman's 
civil  rights,  while  the  same  element  in  his  char- 
acter antagonized  her  demand  for  political  equal- 
ity." If  it  was  his  selfishness  that  procured 
woman  civil  rights  and  privileges,  was  it  his 
unselfishness  that  formerly  denied  them?  The 
fact  that  the  States  that  granted  them  first,  and 
most  fully,  are  the  ones  where  Suffrage  has  made 
least  progress,  suggests  the  injustice  of  the 
charge. 

But  a  question  of  real  interest  is,  must  the 
political  demand  made  by  women  be  counted  as 
the  chief  influence  in  modifying  the  laws  ? 

In  1836,  Judge  Hertell  presented,  in  the  New 
York  Legislature,  a  bill  to  secure  property  rights 
to  married  women,  which  had  been  drawn  up 
under  the  supervision  of  the  Hon.  John  Savage, 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  Hon. 
John  C.  Spencer,  one  of  the  revisers  of  the  statutes. 
In  its  behalf  Ernestine  Kose  and  Paulina  Wright 
Davis  circulated  a  petition,  to  which  they  gained 
only  five  signatures  among  their  own  sex. 

Ernestine  Eose  was  a  Polish  Jewess  who  had 
renounced  all  faith  with  her  own.  She  was  an 
extreme  communist,  and  before  coming  here  to 
labor  for  Liberalism  and  Woman  Suffrage,  she 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.       165 

had  presided  over  a  body  called  "  An  Association 
of  all  Classes  of  all  Nations,  without  distinc- 
tion of  sect,  sex,  party  condition,  or  color." 
Paulina  Wright  Davis,  gifted  though  she  was, 
was  a  radical  of  an  extreme  type.  How  much 
the  character  of  the  advocates  had  to  do  with 
their  failure,  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  it  appears 
to  be  another  proof  of  the  evil  influence  of  Suf- 
frage action  upon  woman's  progress  that  so  good 
a  work  should  have  been  in  hands  so  unfitted  for 
it.  The  bill  did  not  become  a  law.  Mrs.  Rose 
records  that  she  continued  to  send  petitions  with 
increased  numbers  of  signatures  until  1848-49  ; 
that  from  1837  to  1848  she  addressed  the  New 
York  Legislature  five  times,  and  a  good  many 
times  after  the  latter  date.  That  she  was  not 
recognized  as  an  aid  to  legislation  seems  evident 
from  the  testimony  that  follows. 

In  the  previous  chapter  I  have  quoted  the  edi- 
tors of  the  "  History "  as  saying  that  the  first 
thing  that  led  them  to  demand  political  rights 
was  the  discussion,  in  several  of  the  State  legis- 
latures, of  these  property  questions  in  regard  to 
married  women.  Another  proof  that  they  did 
not  inspire  the  early  laws  is  seen  in  the  following 
extracts  from  a  letter  from  the  Hon.  Georsre 

O 

Geddes,  written  to  Mrs.  Gage,  in  1880,  and  an- 
swering her  question  as  to  who  was  responsible  for 
the  Married-Woman's  Property-Rights  bill,  which 
was  passed  in  1848.  He  said  : 

"  I  have  very  distinct  recollections  of  the  whole 


166  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

history  of  this  very  radical  measure.  Judge  Fine, 
of  St.  Lawrence,  was  its  originator,  and  he  gave 
me  his  reasons  for  introducing  the  bill.  He  said 
that  he  married  a  lady  who  had  some  property  of 
her  own,  which  he  had,  all  his  life,  tried  to  keep 
distinct  from  his,  that  she  might  have  the  benefit 
of  her  own,  in  the  event  of  any  disaster  happening 
to  him  in  pecuniary  matters.  He  had  found  much 
difficulty,  growing  out  of  the  old  laws,  in  this 
effort  to  protect  his  wife's  interests.  ...  I,  too, 
had  special  reasons  for  desiring  this  change  in  the 
law.  I  had  a  young  daughter,  who,  in  the  then 
condition  of  my  health,  was  quite  likely  to  be  left 
in  tender  years  without  a  father,  and  I  very  much 
desired  to  protect  her  in  the  little  property  I 
might  be  able  to  leave.  ...  I  believe  this  law 
originated  with  Judge  Fine,  without  any  outside 
prompting.  On  the  third  day  of  the  session  he 
gave  notice  of  his  intention  to  introduce  it,  and 
only  one  petition  was  presented  in  favor  of  the 
bill,  and  that  came  from  Syracuse,  and  was  due 
to  the  action  of  my  personal  friends.  .  .  .  "We  all 
felt  that  the  laws  regulating  married  women's,  as 
well  as  married  men's,  rights  demanded  careful 
revision  and  adaptation  to  our  times  and  to  our 
civilization.  ...  In  reply  to  your  inquiries  in  re- 
gard to  debates  that  preceded  the  action  of  1848, 
I  must  say  I  know  of  none,  and  I  am  quite  sure 
that  in  our  long  discussions  no  allusion  was  made 
to  anything  of  the  kind." 
It  would  thus  appear  that  neither  Mrs.  Gage, 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        167 

nor  Mrs.  Stan  ton,  nor  Miss  Anthony  knew  the 
names  of  the  proposer  and  defenders  of  the  bill 
that  opened  the  way  in  New  York  for  all  the 
liberal  legislation  that  has  folloAved,  and  thirty 
years  after  its  passage  they  inquired  whether  any 
debates  had  preceded  it.  Certainly,  then,  their 
own  had  not.  It  is  also  evident  how  much  "  self- 
ishness "  prompted  the  bill. 

In  a  pamphlet  published  by  the  New  York 
"Woman-Suffrage  Association  to  report  their  pro- 
ceedings during  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1894,  it  is  recorded  that  Mr.  F.  B.  Church,  of 
Alleghany,  presented  an  appeal  from  his  county 
asking  for  the  suffrage.  In  the  course  of  his  re- 
marks he  said :  "  Sir,  beginning  in  1848,  the  male 
citizens  of  the  State  of  New  York,  not  at  the 
clamor  of  the  women,  as  I  understand  it,  but  actu- 
ated by  a  sense  of  justice,  began  to  remove  the  dis- 
abilities under  which  women  labored  at  that  time. 
Gradually,  from  that  time  on,  the  barriers  had 
been  stricken  away,  until,  in  1891,  I  believe,  the 
last  impediments  were  removed." 

In  1844,  Rhode  Island  had  passed  property  laws 
for  married  women.  In  1848-9  Connecticut  and 
Texas,  as  well  as  New  York,  did  so,  apparently 
uninfluenced  by  anything  except  their  "  sense 
of  justice."  In  1850-'52  Alabama  and  Maine 
passed  such  laws.  In  1853  New  Hampshire, 
Indiana,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa  changed  their  laAA^s 
in  this  respect.  They  moved  forward  in  this 
reform,  as  did  the  other  States,  before  there 


168  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

was  even  a   beginning  of  Suffrage   agitation  in 
them. 

In  1847,  Mrs.  C.  J.  II.  Nichols,  who  afterward 
became  a  Suffrage  worker,  addressed  to  the  voters 
of  Vermont  a  series  of  editorials  setting  forth  the 
property  disabilities  of  women.  In  October  of 
that  year,  Hon.  Larkin  Mead,  moved,  he  said,  by 
her  presentation,  introduced  a  bill  into  the  Senate, 
which,  becoming  a  law,  secured  to  the  wife  real 
estate  owned  by  her  at  marriage,  or  acquired  by 
gift,  devise,  or  inheritance  during  marriage,  with 
the  rents,  issues,  and  profits,  as  against  any  debts 
of  the  husband  ;  but  to  make  a  sale  or  conveyance 
of  either  her  realty  or  its  use  valid,  it  must  be  the 
joint  act  of  husband  and  wife.  She  might  by  last 
will  and  testament  dispose  of  her  lands,  tene- 
ments, hereditaments,  and  any  interest  therein 
descendable  to  her  heirs,  as  if  "  sole."  Mrs. 
Nichols  says  that  in  1852  she  drew  up  a  petition 
signed  by  more  than  two  hundred  business  men 
and  tax-paying  widows,  asking  the  Legislature  to 
make  women  voters  in  school  matters.  Mrs. 
Nichols's  report  is  clear,  sound,  definite,  and  she 
seems  to  have  been  of  real  service,  and  to  have 
won  what  she  sought.  She  says,  "  Up  to  1850  I 
had  not  taken  position  for  suffrage,  although  I  had 
shown  the  absurdity  of  regarding  it  as  un- 
womanly." She  appears  to  have  done  a  great 
deal  of  clever  as  well  as  earnest  and  spirited  talk- 
ing in  the  West,  after  she  had  "  taken  position  for 
suffrage,"  and  she  reports  that,  when  she  removed 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        169 

to  Kansas,  her  claims  were  for  "  equal  educational 
rights  and  privileges  in  all  the  schools  and  institu- 
tions of  learning  fostered  or  controlled  by  the 
State."  "  An  equal  right  in  all  matters  pertain- 
ing to  the  organization  and  conduct  of  the  com- 
mon schools."  "Recognition  of  the  mother's 
equal  right  with  the  father  to  the  control  and 
custody  of  their  mutual  offspring."  "  Protection 
in  person,  property,  and  earnings  for  married 
women  and  widows,  the  same  as  for  men."  The 
first  three  were  fully  granted,  the  fourth  was 
changed  as  to  "  personal  service."  In  her  plead- 
ing for  "  political  rights,"  she  was  associated  with 
John  O.  Wattles,  and  the  amendment  they  pro- 
posed was  defeated  in  the  Legislature. 

Petitions  for  "  Woman's  Right "  and  changes  of 
the  laws  were  circulated  in  Massachusetts  as  early 
as  1848.  In  1849,  a  year  after  the  first  Suffrage 
Convention,  Ohio,  Maine,  Indiana,  and  Missouri, 
had  passed  laws  giving  to  married  women  the 
right  to  their  own  earnings.  A  "  Memorial "  was 
sent  by  the  Suffrage  Association  to  the  Ohio 
Constitutional  Convention  in  1850,  from  which  I 
take  the  following :  "  We  believe  the  whole 
theory  of  the  common  law  in  relation  to  woman 
is  unjust  and  degrading."  (Then  follows  political 
injustice.)  "  We  would  especially  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  legal  condition  of  married  women." 
(Then  follow  general  statements  and  quotations 
from  the  common  law.)  The  attention  of  the 
memorialists  was  called  by  the  proper  authorities 


170  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

to  the  fact  that  the  statute  laws  of  Ohio  had 
radically  changed  the  general  matters  charged. 
In  answering  comment,  Mrs.  Coe  said  :  "  The  com- 
mittee were  perfectly  aware  of  the  existence  of 
the  statutes  mentioned,  but  did  not  see  fit  to  incor- 
porate them  in  the  petition,  not  only  on  account 
of  their  great  length,  but  because  they  do  not  at 
all  invalidate  the  position  which  the  petition  affects 
to  establish — the  inequality  of  the  sexes  before  the 
law  ;  because  if  the  wife  departs  from  the  condi- 
tions of  the  statutes,  and  thus  comes  under  the 
common  law,  they  are  against  her."  She  then 
adds :  "  There  are  other  laws  which  might  be 
mentioned,  which  really  give  woman  an  apparent 
advantage  over  man  ;  yet,  having  no  relevancy  to 
the  subject  in  the  petition,  we  did  not  see  fit  to 
introduce  them." 

The  ignorance  displayed  here  is  phenomenal. 
Common  law  is  operative  only  in  the  absence  of 
statute  law.  The  Ohio  statute  (as  with  all  statutes) 
superseded  the  common  law  ;  and  if  the  woman 
"  departs  from  the  condition  of  the  statute,"  she 
suffers  the  penalty  prescribed  therein,  without 
reference  to  her  previous  position  before  the  law. 

One  of  the  earliest  demands  made  by  the  Suf- 
frage Association  was  for  a  law  that  should  allow 
of  absolute  divorce  for  drunkenness;  and  this  was 
soon  followed  by  demands  for  divorce  for  other 
causes.  In  presenting  a  petition  to  the  New  York 
Legislature,  pressing  these  measures,  Mrs.  Stanton 
addressed  the  Assembly,  and  from  her  remarks  I 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        171 

take  the  following  words :  "  Allow  me  to  call  the 
attention  of  that  party  now  so  much  interested  in 
the  slave  of  the  Carolinas  to  the  similarity  in  his 
condition  and  that  of  the  mothers,  wives,  and 
daughters  of  the  Empire  State.  The  negro  has  no 
name.  He  is  Cuffy  Douglas,  or  Cuffy  Brooks, 
just  whose  Cuffy  he  may  chance  to  be.  The 
woman  has  no  name.  She  is  Mrs.  Richard  Eoe, 
or  Mrs.  John  Doe,  just  whose  Mrs.  she  may  chance 
to  be.  Cuffy  has  no  right  to  his  earnings ;  he 
cannot  buy  or  sell,  nor  make  contracts,  nor  lay  up 
anything  that  he  can  call  his  own.  Mrs.  Roe  has 
no  right  to  her  earnings  ;  she  can  neither  buy, 
sell,  nor  make  contracts,  nor  lay  up  anything  that 
she  can  call  her  own.  Cuffy  has  no  right  to  his 
children;  they  may  be  bound  out  to  cancel  a 
father's  debts  of  honor.  The  white  unborn  child, 
even  by  the  last  will  of  the  father,  may  be  placed 
under  the  guardianship  of  a  stranger,  a  foreigner. 
Cuffy  has  no  legal  right  to  existence ;  he  is  sub- 
ject to  restraint  and  moderate  chastisement.  Mrs. 
Roe  has  no  legal  existence ;  she  has  not  the  best 
right  to  her  person.  The  husband  has  the  power 
to  restrain  and  administer  moderate  chastisement. 
The  prejudice  against  color,  of  which  we  hear  so 
much,  is  no  stronger  than  that  against  sex.  It  is 
produced  by  the  same  cause,  and  manifested  very 
much  in  the  same  way.  The  negro's  skin  and  the 
woman's  sex  are  both  prima  facie  evidence  that 
they  were  intended  to  be  in  subjection  to  the 
white  Saxon  man.  The  few  social  privileges  which 


172  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

the  man  gives  the  woman,  he  makes  up  to  the 
negro  in  civil  rights.  The  woman  may  sit  at  the 
same  table  and  eat  with  the  white  man  ;  the  free 
negro  may  hold  property  and  vote." 

It  is  difficult  for  our  thought  to  reach  the  low 
level  from  which  this  comparison  is  made.  It 
ignores  all  the  moral  and  spiritual  conceptions 
that  gave  rise  to  and  hallow  marriage.  But 
looking  upon  marriage  as  a  mere  financial  com- 
pact, and  taking  the  laws  even  as  they  then 
were,  a  few  things  may  be  said.  "  Cuflfy  has  no 
name  that  he  can  call  his  own."  Elizabeth  Cady 
Stanton  has  her  own  baptismal  name,  the  name 
of  her  honored  father,  and  that  of  her  honored 
husband,  and  the  opportunity  to  make  those  names 
more  her  own  by  personal  achievement  than  any 
one's  else.  Her  mother,  her  father,  her  husband, 
and  her  son  are  as  dependent  upon  her  for  pre- 
serving the  character  and  distinctiveness  of  that 
name,  as  she  is  upon  them.  Why  Lucy  Stone 
should  have  put  inconvenience  and  indignity  upon 
both  herself  and  her  husband  for  the  sake  of  con- 
tinuing to  wear  her  father's  name  instead  of  as- 
suming her  husband's,  I  never  could  understand. 
She  did  not  share  the  name  she  gave  her  child. 
And  there  is  another  distinction  between  the 
nameless  Cuffy  and  the  trebly-named  Saxon 
woman.  The  husband's  name  was  not  thrust 
upon  her.  By  uttering  the  simple  monosyllable 
"  No,"  she  could  decline  to  wear  it.  It  was  only 
as  she  consented  to  be  mistress  of  a  husband's 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        173 

heart  and  home  that  she  passed  from  the  condi- 
tion offeinme  sole  and  acquired  a  title  and  an 
additional  name.  "  Cuffy  has  no  right  to  his 
earnings."  This  would  be  of  less  consequence  to 
Cuffy  if  he  had  a  right  to  his  master's  earnings. 
When  a  right  to  another's  earnings  goes  along 
with  the  mutual  relation  toward  a  home  of  master 
and  mistress,  the  difference  between  Cuffy  and 
Mrs.  Hoe  is  unspeakable.  "  Cuffy  cannot  buy  or 
sell,  make  contracts,  nor  lay  up  anything  that  he 
can  call  his  own."  If  Cuffy  had  the  right  to  pre- 
vent his  master  from  buying,  selling,  making  con- 
tracts, or  laying  up  anything  that  he  could  call 
his  own  until  Cuffy's  wants  had  been  provided  for 
in  the  most  ample  manner,  the  world  would  have 
felt  less  moved  over  Cuffy's  wrongs.  "  Cuffy  has 
no  right  to  his  children."  Mrs.  Roe  has  a  right 
to  compel  Mr.  Roe  to  bestow  his  name  upon  her 
children,  and  to  support  the  boys  until  they  are 
twenty-one,  and  the  girls  forever.  "  Cuffy  has 
no  legal  right  to  existence."  Mrs.  Roe  has  so 
much  legal  right  to  existence  that  she  stands 
toward  the  State  and  toward  her  husband  in  the 
relation  of  a  preferred  creditor.  The  State  can- 
not call  upon  her  for  its  most  arduous  duties, 
which  must  however  be  performed  in  her  behalf. 
Her  husband  cannot  dispose  of  real  property 
without  her  signature.  If  he  dies  solvent,  noth- 
ing can  prevent  her  taking  a  fair  share  of  his 
estate,  and  he  may  give  her  the  whole  :  but  if  he 
dies  bankrupt,  neither  his  will,  nor  the  State,  nor 


174  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

anything  else,  can  make  her  pay  one  dollar  of  his 
debts.  "  Cuffy  is  subject  to  restraint  and  moder- 
ate chastisement."  "  The  husband  has  the  power 
to  restrain  and  administer  moderate  chastisement." 
The  public  horsewhipping  of  a  husband  by  his 
wife  is  a  rare  sight,  but  when  it  occurs  the  law  is 
far  more  ready  to  overlook  the  breach  of  order 
than  it  is  to  permit  the  slightest  attempt  at  as- 
sault and  battery  upon  the  wife.  As  the  remain- 
ing statements  have  no  reference  to  the  laws,  I 
may  excuse  myself  from  telling  how  strangely 
beneath  the  dignity  of  truth  they  seem  to  me. 
That  they  were  urged  in  connection  with  a  bill 
asking  for  divorce  for  drunkenness  suggests  that 
such  a  plea  was  made  an  entering  wedge  for  the 
radical  divorce  measures  that  have  been  advo- 
cated in  Suffrage  conventions.  Any  State  would, 
at  that  time,  grant  legal  separation  for  a  wife 
from  a  drunken  husband,  and  would  compel  the 
husband  to  support  the  wife  to  the  extent  of  his 
means. 

This  matter  of  easier  divorce  has  been  pressed 
steadily  from  the  beginning,  but  with  very  little 
of  the  result  that  the  Suffragists  desired. 

In  the  Convention  of  the  National  Council  of 
"Women,  which  met  in  "Washington,  D.  C.,  in 
February,  1895,  the  Suffrage  Associations  were 
largely  represented.  Their  committee  on  divorce 
reform  consisted  of  Ellen  Battelle  Dietrick,  Chair- 
man, and  Mary  A.  Livermore  and  Fanny  B.  Ames. 
Their  report  was,  in  part,  as  follows :  "  In  ac- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        175 

cordance  with  the  instructions  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Council,  your  chairman  sent 
forty-eight  letters  to  the  Governors  of  States  and 
Territories,  asking  each  to  call  the  attention  of 
his  legislature  to  the  situation  concerning  divorce 
laws,  and  requesting  the  appointment  of  a  com- 
mittee to  consider  the  matter,  said  committee  to 
consist  of  an  equal  number  of  men  and  women." 

Here  it  is  the  same  old  story.  Theirs  is  not  an 
intelligent  presentment  of  changes  desired,  but 
simply  a  continued  urging  of  women  for  personal 
share  in  the  making  of  the  laws.  In  commenting 
upon  the  refusal  of  the  Governor  of  Iowa,  among 
others,  the  Committee  says :  "  And  yet  Iowa  is 
one  of  the  States  which  has  recently  formed  a 
commission  of  men  to  consider  making  Iowa 
divorce  laws  uniform  with  those  of  all  other 
States."  The  laws  that  make  it  possible  for  a 
woman  divorced  in  one  State  to  be  looked  upon 
in  another  State  as  still  bound,  were  not  petitioned 
against. 

Uniformity  in  the  divorce  laws  of  the  United 
States  is  one  of  the  great  legislative  reforms  that 
are  moving  slowly  but  surely ;  and  with  that,  it 
appears,  the  Suffrage  appeal  has  nothing  to  do. 
The  Committee  closed  its  report  by  saying :  "  We 
might  as  well  face  the  fact  that  the  official  serv- 
ants of  the  United  States  cherish  frank  contempt 
for  woman's  opinions  and  wishes,  and  that,  too, 
in  regard  to  a  matter  which  concerns  the  welfare 
of  women  far  more  vitally  than  it  does  the  welfare 


176  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

of  men.  The  one  thing  we  should  deprecate  is 
having  men  make  any  new  laws  or  fresh  provisions 
for  women's  protection." 

In  the  spring  of  1854-  Miss  Anthony  and  Ernes- 
tine Rose  presented  a  petition  to  the  New  York 
Legislature,  and  the  Albany  "  Argus,"  of  March 
4,  published  a  resume  of  their  appeal.  The  de- 
mands were :  That  husband  and  wife  should  be 
tenants  in  common  of  property,  without  survivor- 
ship, but  with  a  partition  on  tbe  death  of  one ; 
that  a  wife  should  be  competent  to  discharge 
trusts  and  powers  the  same  as  a  single  woman ; 
that  the  statute  in  respect  to  a  married  woman's 
property  be  changed  so  that  her  property  could 
descend  as  though  she  had  been  unmarried ;  that 
married  women  should  be  entitled  to  execute 
letters  testamentary,  and  of  administration  ;  that 
married  women  should  have  power  to  make  con- 
tracts and  transact  business  as  though  unmarried ; 
that  they  should  be  entitled  to  their  own  earnings, 
subject  to  their  proportional  liability  for  support 
of  children ;  that  post-nuptial  acquisitions  should 
belong  equally  to  husband  and  wife  ;  that  married 
women  should  stand  on  the  same  footing  as  single 
women,  as  parties  or  witnesses  in  legal  proceed- 
ings ;  that  they  should  be  sole  guardians  of  the 
minor  children ;  that  the  homestead  should  be 
inviolable  and  inalienable  for  widows  and  children ; 
that  the  laws  in  relation  to  divorce  should  be  re- 
vised, and  drunkenness  made  cause  for  absolute 
divorce ;  that  better  care  should  be  taken  of  single 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        177 

women's  property,  that  their  rights  might  not  be 
lost  through  ignorance  ;  that  the  preference  of 
males  in  the  descent  of  real  estate  should  be 
abolished ;  that  women  should  exercise  the  right 
of  suffrage,  and  be  eligible  to  all  offices,  occupa- 
tions, and  professions,  and  to  act  as  jurors ;  that 
courts  of  conciliation  should  be  organized  as  peace- 
makers ;  that  a  law  should  be  enacted  extending 
the  masculine  designation  in  all  statutes  of  the 
State  to  females. 

I  cannot  fully  understand  Miss  Anthony's  posi- 
tion ;  but  in  some  notable  particulars,  not  her  laws 
but  better  ones  are  in  force.  When  Miss  Anthony 
wrote  to  inquire  who  was  responsible  for  repeal- 
ing an  act  of  1860  for  which  she  had  worked  with 
her  well-known  zeal,  Judge  Charles  J.  Folger  re- 
plied, in  part :  "  I  think — with  deference  I  say  it 
— that  you  are  not  strictly  accurate  in  calling 
the  legislation  of  1862  a  repealing  one.  In  but 
one  thing  did  it  repeal,  in  the  sense  of  taking  away 
right  or  power  or  privilege  or  freedom  that  the 
Act  of  1860  gave.  On  the  contrary,  in  some  re- 
spects it  gave  more  or  greater." 

Miss  Anthony  says,  in  comment  on  Judge 
Folger's  letter  :  "  Mr.  Folger  makes  mistakes  in 
regard  to  the  effect  of  these  bills  ;  quite  forgetting 
that  the  wife  has  never  had  an  equal  right  to  the 
joint  earnings  of  the  copartnership,  as  no  valua- 
tion has  ever  been  placed  on  her  labor  in  the 
household,  to  which  she  gives  all  her  time, 
thought,  and  strength.  A  law  securing  to  the 

12 


178  WOMAN  AND  THE  BEPUBLIC. 

wife  the  absolute  right  to  half  the  joint  earnings, 
and,  at  the  death  of  the  husband,  the  same  con- 
trol of  property  and  children  that  he  has  when 
she  dies,  might  make  some  show  of  justice  ;  but 
it  is  a  provision  not  yet  on  the  statute-books  of 
any  civilized  nation." 

If  it  Avere  to  be  placed  on  the  statute-book, 
would  not  one  have  to  be  placed  beside  it  making 
the  wife  equally  responsible  for  the  support  of  the 
husband  ?  The  law  can  only  take  cognizance  of 
the  earnings  of  that  member  of  the  firm  who 
transacts  business  with  the  outside  world.  How 
the  proceeds  of  mutual  labor  shall  be  best  made 
their  own  is  for  each  husband  and  wife  to  settle ; 
it  cannot  be  matter  of  legislation.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  think  what  an  increase  of  domesticity  there 
would  be  if  a  business  partnership,  such  as  Miss 
Anthony  suggests,  were  demanded  by  the  statutes. 
The  law,  which  now  lays  the  whole  support  on 
the  husband  and  father,  whether  the  wife  and 
daughter  work  in  the  home  or  not,  would  make  it 
obligatory  for  the  home  partner  to  give  all  her 
time,  thought,  and  strength  to  labor  in  the  house- 
hold, in  order  to  bring  in  her  bill  for  services. 

The  real  test  of  the  working  of  woman  suffrage 
is  to  be  found  in  the  answer  to  the  question 
whether  better  laws  have  been  framed  as  a  conse- 
quence ? 

There  has  been  no  advance  in  legislation  in 
Utah  or  Wyoming  through  the  action  or  votes  of 
women.  The  authorities  whom  I  have  consulted 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        179 

do  not  know  of  any  legislation  in  Colorado  which 
can  be  traced  directly  to  the  presence  of  women 
in  the  legislature.  Exception  may  possibly  be 
made  in  regard  to  the  Age-of -Consent  bill,  which, 
in  common  with  nearly  all  the  States,  Colorado 
passed  in  favor  of  raising  the  age.  That  bill  was 
introduced  by  a  woman  member,  and  was  strongly 
advocated  by  the  others,  and  it  called  forth  an 
unwise  discussion  and  a  repulsive  scene  in  the 
House.  A  great  many  women  have  been  elected 
to  county  offices,  in  that  State,  especially  those 
connected  with  the  schools,  and  those  of  Clerk 
and  Treasurer.  In  answer  to  a  question,  my  cor- 
respondent adds :  "  I  do  not  know  of  any  great 
improvements  of  any  kind  or  description  in  our 
county  affairs  that  have  been  made  in  the  past 
four  years." 

In  Wyoming,  where  women  have  voted  so  many 
years,  less  restraint  is  imposed  on  liquor-selling 
than  in  most  of  the  other  States.  Divorce  is 
granted  for  any  one  of  eleven  causes,  after  a  re- 
sidence of  but  six  months.  The  age  of  consent 
was  only  fourteen  years  as  late  as  1890.  Gambl- 
ing is  legal ;  not  only  do  the  laws  mention  many 
games  with  cards  as  lawful,  but  a  statute  declares : 
"No  town,  city,  or  municipal  corporation  in  this 
Territory  shall  hereafter  have  power  to  prohibit, 
suppress  or  regulate  any  gaming-house  or  game, 
licensed  as  provided  for  in  this  chapter."  "  Ex- 
cusable homicide  "  is  also  defined  by  statute.  It 
is  allowable  "when  committed  by  accident  or 


180  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

misfortune,  in  the  heat  of  passion  or  sufficient 
provocation,  or  upon  a  sudden  combat ;  provided 
that  no  undue  advantage  is  taken,  nor  any  dan- 
gerous weapon  used,  and  that  the  killing  is  not 
done  in  a  cruel  or  unusual  manner."  The  laws 
could  hardly  have  been  worse  before  women  voted. 

It  is  matter  of  surprise  to  find  how  generally  in 
Western  towns  and  States  in  which  woman  has 
voted  or  held  office,  "  Woman  has  degraded  pol- 
itics, and  politics  has  degraded  woman."  This  is 
not,  to  my  mind,  proof  that  American  women  are 
degenerating,  but  it  suggests  that  the  women  who 
have  sought  political  life  are  not  representative. 

Another  legal  demand  very  early  made  by  the 
Suffrage  leaders  was  that  for  the  entrance  of 
women  into  men's  colleges.  So  far  as  the  State 
could  control  this  by  law,  it  has  done  so.  Every 
educational  institution  that  receives  State  sup- 
port, from  the  primary  school  to  the  State  Uni- 
versity, is  now  open  to  women.  Cornell  Universi- 
ty, opened  in  October,  1868,  was  aided  by  a  State 
gift  of  a  million  acres,  and  opened  its  doors  to 
women  in  April,  18T2.  In  the  West,  the  State 
Universities  would  have  been  closed  for  lack  of 
pupils,  during  the  war,  if  women  had  not  attended 
them. 

The  New  York  State  Suffrage  Association  in- 
cludes in  its  report  of  the  doings  at  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  a  report  of  its  legislative  work 
for  the  twenty-two  years  of  its  existence.  Of  the 
many  petitions  presented  during  those  years,  but 
three  relate  to  anything  but  Suffrage  in  some 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        181 

form,  and  these  did  not  originate  with  the  New 
York  Suffrage  Association.  One  of  these  three 
related  to  the  bill  to  secure  police  matrons  in 
New  York  City.  Work  was  begun  in  1882  and 
ended  in  success  in  1891,  there  being  strong  opposi- 
tion to  it.  The  act  to  provide  woman  physicians 
for  prisons,  and  one  making  mother  and  father 
joint  guardians  of  children,  passed  in  1888  and 
1892.  Three  of  the  Suffrage  bills  refer  to  school 
matters,  one  of  which  was  successful  and  two 
were  lost.  Five  relate  to  municipal  suffrage, 
all  of  which  were  defeated.  The  remaining  six- 
teen bills  were  all  for  full  suffrage,  were  all  urged 
by  many  speakers,  and  were  all  defeated.  I  give, 
in  closing,  Mr.  Francis  M.  Scott's  summary  of  the 
laws  of  New  York  State  that  relate  especially  to 
women  and  are  in  force  to-day.  Much  special 
legislation  urged  by  Suffrage  petitions  has  not 
been  enacted  at  all,  and  much  has  been  passed  in 
a  different  form.  Suffragists  say  that  the  change 
of  laws  constitutes  no  reason  for  opposing  suf- 
frage, but  to  my  mind  it  constitutes  a  most  excel- 
lent one.  What  has  been  done  by  petition  proves 
the  power  to  do  more  by  the  same  means,  and  the 
fact  that  much  of  the  best  legislation  has  been 
against  the  demand  of  the  Suffragists  or  in  pre- 
cedence of  it,  proves  that  the  rights  of  women  are 
in  hands  that  are  capable  of  meeting  fresh  inter- 
ests as  they  arise. 

Every  profession  and  business  is  open  to  women 


182  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

to  exactly  the  same  extent  as  to  men,  and  already 
women  have  found  a  place  in  law,  medicine,  archi- 
tecture, journalism,  and  other  professions. 

Single  women  always  could  engage  in  commer- 
cial and  mercantile  pursuits  without  hindrance  or 
restriction. 

Notwithstanding  her  marriage,  a  woman  now 
holds  and  enjoys  her  separate  property,  however 
acquired,  freed  from  any  interference  or  control 
on  the  part  of  her  husband,  and  from  all  liability 
for  his  debts. 

She  may  sell,  assign,  and  transfer  her  real  and 
personal  property,  and  carry  on  any  trade  or  busi- 
ness and  perform  any  labor  and  services  on  her 
own  sole  and  separate  account,  and  her  earnings 
are  her  own  sole  and  separate  property. 

She  may  sue  and  be  sued,  as  if  she  were  un- 
married, and  may  maintain  an  action  in  her  own 
name  for  injury  to  her  person  or  character  (in- 
cluding actions  for  slander  or  libel),  and  the  pro- 
ceeds of  any  such  action  are  her  sole  and  separate 
property. 

She  may  contract  to  the  same  extent,  with  like 
effect  in  the  same  form  as  if  she  were  unmarried, 
and  she  and  her  separate  estate  are  liable  thereon. 

A  widow  is  endowed  of  the  third  part  of  all  the 
real  estate  whereof  her  husband  is  seized  of  an 
estate  of  inheritance  at  any  time  during  the  mar- 
riage. This  interest,  termed  during  the  lifetime 
of  her  husband  inchoate,  attaches  at  the  instant  of 
marriage  to  all  real  estate  the  husband  then  owns, 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.       183 

and  after  marriage  to  all  real  estate  he  acquires. 
Having  once  attached,  it  cannot  be  divested  by 
any  act  of  the  husband,  or  any  of  his  creditors. 
The  wife  alone  can  release  it,  and  she  forfeits  it 
only  in  case  of  a  divorce  dissolving  the  marriage 
for  her  misconduct. 

The  husband  cannot  either  sell  or  devise  his  real 
estate,  except  subject  to  this  dower  right  of  his 
wife.  The  husband's  estate  by  courtesy  in  his 
wife's  real  estate  is  by  no  means  so  broad  or  so 
well  secured  as  is  the  wife's  right  of  dower.  It 
does  not  attach  at  all  until  the  birth  of  a  living 
child,  and  the  wife  may  absolutely  defeat  it  at  any 
time  without  any  consent  on  the  part  of  her  hus- 
band, either  by  conveying  her  real  estate  during 
her  lifetime,  or1  by  devising  it  by  her  will.  It  is 
no  longer  necessary  for  the  husband  to  join  with 
the  wife  in  conveying  her  property. 

A  husband  is  liable  for  necessaries  purchased  by 
his  wife,  and  also  for  money  given  to  the  wife  by 
a  third  person  in  order  to  enable  her  to  purchase 
necessaries,  and  he  is  bound  to  support  her  and 
her  children  without  regard  to  the  extent  of  her 
individual  and  separate  estate.  No  similar  obliga- 
tion to  furnish  necessaries  to  a  husband  is  imposed 
upon  a  wife.  The  legal  definition  of  necessaries 
is  very  broad,  being  "  such  things  as  are  actually 
required  for  the  wife's  support  commensurate 
with  the  husband's  means,  her  wonted  living  as 
his  spouse,  and  her  station  in  the  community." 

In  case  of  a  divorce,  whether  partial  or  absolute, 


184  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

obtained  by  the  wife,  the  husband  is  required  to 
pay  alimony  for  her  support  during  the  rest  of  her 
life,  even  if  she  should  re-marry.  A  wife  from 
whom  a  husband  obtains  a  divorce  cannot  be  re- 
quired to  contribute  in  any  way  to  his  support. 

Although  the  law  has  opened  wide  the  door  for 
all  women  to  engage  in  business,  it  still  discrimi- 
nates in  their  favor  in  many  particulars.  No 
woman  can  be  arrested  in  a  civil  action,  or  held 
by  an  execution  against  the  body,  except  in  cases 
in  which  it  is  shown  that  she  has  committed  "  a 
wilful  injury  to  person,  character,  or  property,"  or 
has  been  guilty  of  such  an  evasion  of  duty  as  is 
equivalent  to  a  contempt  of  court.  Thus  a  woman 
engaged  in  business  cannot  be  arrested  in  an  action 
for  a  debt  fraudulently  contracted. 

All  women  judgment  debtors,  whether  married 
or  single,  enjoy  certain  exemptions  from  the  sale 
of  their  property  under  execution,  which,  in  the 
case  of  men,  extend  only  to  a  householder  ;  that 
is,  a  man  who  has,  and  provides  for,  a  household 
or  family. 

Every  married  woman  is  the  joint  guardian  of 
her  children  with  her  husband,  with  equal  powers, 
rights,  and  duties  in  regard  to  them  with  her  hus- 
band. It  is  only  the  survivor,  be  it  father  or 
mother,  who  possesses  the  right  to  appoint  a 
guardian  by  deed  or  by  will.  She  has  now  equal 
rights  with  the  father  over  her  children. 

As  matter  of  practice,  the  courts  when  called 
upon  to  award  the  custody  of  minor  children  in 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  LAWS.        185 

cases  of  separation,  determine  the  question  with 
reference  solely  to  the  interests  of  the  child,  with 
a  strong  leaning  in  the  mother's  favor. 

A  husband's  creditors  have  no  claim  upon  the 
proceeds  of  a  policy  of  insurance  upon  his  life  for 
the  benefit  of  his  wife,  unless  the  annual  pre- 
miums paid  by  him  shall  have  exceeded  five  hun- 
dred dollars.  The  proceeds  of  such  a  policy  are 
exempt  from  execution  for  any  debt  owed  by  the 
wife. 

The  statutes  contain  a  large  number  of  special 
provisions  for  the  benefit  of  female  employees  in 
factories  and  mercantile  houses.  In  the  city  of 
New  York,  if  any  man  fails  to  pay  the  wages  due 
a  female  employee  up  to  fifty  dollars,  not  only  is 
none  of  his  property  exempt  from  execution,  but 
he  is  liable  to  be  imprisoned  upon  a  body  execution, 
and  kept  in  close  confinement  without  the  privi- 
lege of  bail.  A  similar  rule  is  applicable  in 
Brooklyn. 

No  woman  can  be  called  upon  to  perform  mili- 
tary duty. 

No  woman  can  be  required  to  serve  upon  any 
jury. 

No  woman  can  be  called  upon  by  the  sheriff  or 
any  peace  officer  to  assist  in  quelling  a  disturb- 
ance or  making  an  arrest. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES. 

THE  fifth  count  in  the  Suffrage  Declaration  of 
Sentiments  reads  as  follows  :  "  He  has  monopo- 
lized nearly  all  the  profitable  employments,  and 
from  those  she  is  permitted  to  follow  she  receives 
but  scanty  remuneration." 

The  women  who  wrote  that  in  1848,  in  common 
with  the  majority  of  American  women,  were  pre- 
sumably being  well  provided  for  in  their  own 
homes,  by  men  whose  boast  it  was  that  their 
wives  and  daughters  did  not  need  or  care  to  seek 
employment  elsewhere.  It  is  true  that  at  that 
time,  because  of  this  supposed  advantage,  as  mar- 
ried women  they  could  not  have  engaged  in 
separate  business  that  would  involve  the  making 
of  contracts  or  distinct  bargain  and  sale.  To  the 
world  the  husband  was  the  wife's  financial 
manager.  But  at  that  time  the  wife  could  enter 
any  of  the  employments  as  a  paid  clerk  or  worker. 
This  count  seems  more  surprising  in  view  of  the 
fact  that,  writing  only  three  years  later,  to  a 
Suffrage  convention  that  met  in  Akron,  Ohio, 
Mrs.  Stanton  said  :  "  The  trades  and  professions 

are  all  open  to  us  ;  let  us  quietly  enter  and  make 
186 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.     187 

ourselves,  if  not  rich  and  famous,  at  least  inde- 
pendent and  respectable."  Two  years  later  still, 
Colonel  Thomas  "W.  Higginson  wrote  to  another 
Suffrage  convention  that  met  in  Akron,  Ohio : 
"  We  complain  of  the  industrial  disadvantages  of 
women,  and  indicate  at  the  same  time  their  capac- 
ities for  a  greater  variety  of  pursuits.  Why  not 
obtain  a  statement  on  as  large  a  scale  as  possible, 
first  of  what  women  are  doing  now,  commercially 
and  mechanically,  throughout  the  Union,  and 
secondly,  of  the  embarrassments  which  they  meet, 
the  inequality  of  their  wages,  and  all  the  other 
peculiarities  of  their  position."  This  would  have 
been  most  valuable  and  interesting,  and  it  would 
seem  that  something  of  the  kind  should  have 
preceded  the  sweeping  accusation  made  in  the 
Declaration ;  but  there  appears  in  their  "  History  " 
no  evidence  of  its  having  been  done.  In  1859 
Caroline  H.  Ball  said,  in  addressing  a  Suffrage 
convention :  "  I  honor  women  who  act.  That  is 
the  reason  that  I  greet  so  gladly  girls  like  Harriet 
Hosmer,  Louisa  Landor,  and  Margaret  Foley. 
Whatever  they  do,  or  do  not  do,  for  Art,  they  do 
a  great  deal  for  the  cause  of  labor.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve any  one  in  this  room  has  an  idea  of  the 
avenues  that  are  open  to  women  already."  Then 
follows  a  list  of  the  trades  then  pursued  by  women 
in  Great  Britain.  Of  the  United  States  she  said  : 
"  Of  factory  operatives  in  1845  there  were  55,828 
men  and  75,710  women.  Women  are  glue-makers, 
glove-makers,  workers  in  gold  and  silver  leaf, 


188  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

hair-weavers,  hat  and  cap-makers,  hose-weavers, 
workers  in  India-rubber,  paper-hangers,  phy- 
sicians, picklers  and  preservers,  saddlers  and 
harness-makers,  shoe-makers,  soda-room  keepers, 
snuff  and  cigar-makers,  stock  and  suspender- 
makers,  truss-makers,  typers  and  stereotypers, 
umbrella-makers,  upholsterers,  card-makers,  pho- 
tographers, house  and  sign-painters,  fruit-hawkers, 
button-makers,  tobacco-packers,  paper-box  makers, 
embroiderers,  and  fur-sewers."  She  added :  "  In 
New  Haven  seven  women  work  with  seventy  men 
in  a  clock  factory  (at  half  wages)."  And  in  sum- 
ming up  she  said :  "  The  great  evils  that  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  depressed  wages  are  that  want  of  re- 
spect for  labor  which  prevents  ladies  from  engag- 
ing in  it,  and  that  want  of  respect  for  women  which 
prevents  men  from  valuing  properly  the  work  they 
do.  Make  women  equal  with  men  before  the 
law,  and  wages  will  adjust  themselves." 

Women  are  equal  with  men  legally  and  wages 
have  not  adjusted  themselves,  and  the  law  has 
had  no  control  over  the  feelings  and  opinions  of 
men  and  women.  Those  who  were  large-minded 
enough  to  respect  labor  asked  no  warrant  from 
legislation,  and  those  who  were  small-minded 
enough  to  undervalue  woman's  work  because  it 
was  woman's,  do  so  still  despite  the  statutes,  and 
would  if  women  voted  at  every  election.  Men 
were  equal  with  each  other  before  the  law,  but 
that  did  not  compel  the  respect  of  foolish  men, 
nor  did  their  wages  adjust  themselves  to  equality 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.     189 

on  that  account.  If  there  were  more  men  work- 
ing in  a  trade  in  a  given  place  than  the  demand 
for  their  products  required,  the  wage  would  fall, 
and  so  it  must  with  women.  But  reasons  entered 
into  the  market  value  of  woman's  work  that  did 
not  enter  into  that  of  men.  Mrs.  Ball  mentions 
but  one  trade  in  which  the  wages  were  lower  for 
women,  and  there  they  competed  with  men.  Those 
seven  women  working  with  the  seventy  men  in 
New  Haven  were  not  expected  to  be  called  upon  to 
support  a  family  by  their  earnings.  If  they  were 
girls,  in  the  natural  course  of  things  they  were 
expected  to  leave  the  work  whenever  they  were 
ready  to  marry.  If  one  of  them  married  one  of 
the  seventy  men,  the  firm  of  employers  would 
lose  her  services  entirely ;  but  the  man  who  mar- 
ried her  would  be  depended  upon  to  work  more 
steadily  than  before,  and  he  would  also  have  more 
incentive  to  do  better  work  in  order  to  command 
still  higher  wages.  The  long  cry  of  Suffrage  has 
not  been  able  to  bring  afiout  "  equal  pay  for  equal 
work,"  even  where  legislation  to  that  effect  has 
been  introduced  into  Trades  Unions  and  State 
laws.  This  has  still  rested,  and  must  rest,  with 
the  employer,  and  his  action  must  be  governed  by 
quality  and  demand  and  supply.  The  attempt 
to  secure  "  equal  wages  "  among  men  has  resulted 
in  bringing  down  the  wages  of  all  to  the  point  of 
the  poorer  workers.  The  general  laws  of  trade, 
like  those  of  government,  are  based  on  principles 
of  universal  equity,  and  however  strenuously  tern- 


190  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

porary  deviations  may  be  pressed,  they  return  at 
last  to  the  natural  position.  This  is  not  saying 
that  there  is  not  great  injustice  toward  labor  by 
capital,  and  toward  capital  by  labor,  but  that  the 
foundation  principles  tend  to  govern  the  mutual 
relations,  and  forcing  that  is  contrary  to  these 
cannot  be  permanently  successful.  If  the  work 
of  women  for  any  reason  is  unequal,  the  wages 
will  be,  and  the  mere  fact  that  some  particular 
women  work  for  some  particular  time  the  same 
number  of  hours,  and  as  well  as  do  the  men  in 
the  same  establishments,  does  not  do  away  with 
the  fact  that  women's  work  in  general  is  not  as 
steady  as  men's,  and  is  not  expected  to  meet  the 
same  emergency  of  family  support.  No  one  can 
believe  more  fully  than  I  in  equal  wages  for  work 
that  is  really  equal;  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
private  contract,  and  not  public  action,  must  regu- 
late the  matter  of  special  wage. 

Government  reports  show  that  the  average  age 
of  the  working-girl  in  this  country  is  but  twenty- 
two  years,  and  that  after  twenty  the  number  falls 
off  rapidly.  Unskilled  labor  must  forever  take 
the  place  of  that  which  is  withdrawn,  which  is 
another  and  most  valid  reason  for  lower  wages. 
That  lower  wages  are  the  result  of  natural  causes, 
and  not  of  unnatural  feeling,  is  shown  in  many 
ways.  Woman  teachers  at  the  West,  where 
teachers  were  needed,  received  as  good  pay  as  did 
men.  In  New  York  I  heard  Superintendent 
Jasper,  I  think  it  was,  say :  "  I  am  in  favor  of 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.     191 

equal  pay  for  equal  work,  for  the  two  sexes ;  but 
we  cannot  give  it  here.  We  can  get  twice  as 
many  good  women  teachers  as  men  teachers,  and 
when  we  need  men  we  must  pay  at  a  higher 
rate."  This  does  not  extend  to  the  highest  grade 
of  teachers,  superintendents,  and  professors  in 
colleges,  where  men  compete  with  one  another. 
There  the  compensation  is  the  same  for  equal 
work.  In  the  highest  forms  of  work  women  com- 
pete on  equal  terms.  In  literature  women  are 
paid,  for  books  or  articles,  the  same  prices  that 
men  receive.  In  art  this  is  true.  It  is  the  picture 
or  statue  or  musical  ability  that  counts.  Singers 
receive  as  much  for  the  soprano  as  for  the  tenor 
voice.  Actresses  are  paid  according  to  "  draw- 
ing "  power,  and  woman  dancers  and  acrobats, 
alas !  command  the  highest  price. 

There  is,  among  others,  this  fundamental  differ- 
ence between  the  business  life  of  men  and  women. 
For  men  who  pursue  occupations  outside  the 
home,  there  are  women  to  manage  that  home. 
For  women  who  pursue  occupations  outside  the 
home,  there  are,  not  men,  but  other  women,  to 
manage  the  home.  The  final  domestic  care  of  the 
world  must  come  upon  women.  The  final  atten- 
tion to  social  life  must  come  upon  women.  In 
behalf  of  the  women  who  are  constrained,  or  who 
choose,  to  sacrifice  their  share  in  this  part  of  the 
world's  necessary  work,  some  other  women  must 
do  double  duty.  That  this  rule  has  seeming  ex- 
ceptions does  not  make  it  less  the  universal  rule. 


192  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Nothing,  not  even  "  industrial  emancipation,"  is 
gotten  for  nothing. 

When  the  count  cited  above  from  the  Suffrage 
indictment  was  written,  the  factory  system  had 
been  established  in  this  country  twenty-six  years. 
From  the  Revolution  down  to  1822,  the  women 
of  the  land  had  been  busy  in  the  homes  making 
the  household  and  personal  wear.  Sixteen  years 
after  the  introduction  of  machinery  into  Lowell, 
Mass.,  12,507  operatives  were  at  work  there,  the 
majority  of  whom  were  women,  American  women 
and  girls.  New  York  State  also  had  its  mills. 
"Fanny  Forester"  (afterward  Mrs.  Judson) 
worked  in  a  mill  near  her  home  in  that  State. 
She  went  there,  as  did  hosts  of  New  England 
girls,  Lucy  Larcom  and  Harriet  Robinson  among 
the  number,  to  relieve  the  home,  but  especially  to 
gain  the  means  of  education,  for  themselves  and 
for  their  brothers  and  sisters.  The  towns  afforded 
better  libraries,  and  there  were  evening  classes 
that  they  could  attend,  things  not  to  be  had  in 
the  farming  districts.  In  1850,  in  twenty-five 
States,  the  factory  census  reported  32,295  men  and 
62,661  women  workers.  In  1860  there  were  46,- 
859  men  and  75,169  women.  Hosiery  machinery 
at  this  time  was  giving  employment  to  three  times 
as  many  women  as  men.  But  the  emigrant,  and 
not  the  American  man,  had  been  the  means  of 
turning  out  the  native  woman  worker  ;  it  was  the 
foreign-born  woman  who  worked  for  "unequal 
pay."  In  1846,  the  sewing-machine  had  been 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.     193 

invented.  Previous  to  that  time,  61,500  women 
were  employed  making  boys'  clothing  by  hand  for 
the  market,  which  was  twice  the  number  of  men 
so  employed,  while  the  woman  tailor  was  as  famil- 
iar a  figure  as  the  dress-maker  in  every  village, 
where  she  went  from  house  to  house. 

In  1861  came  our  Civil  War,  with  its  awful 
sacrifice  of  young  men.  With  that  also  came  the 
heavy  money  loss,  and  consequent  inability  of  many 
men,  even  where  life  and  limb  had  been  spared, 
to  support  their  families  in  the  homes.  That 
great  conflict,  with  its  stern  necessities,  its  lessons 
of  mutual  helpfulness,  its  military  discipline,  which 
taught  the  value  of  organization,  did  more  than 
could  ten  thousand  conventions,  even  had  they 
been  working  with  knowledge  and  system,  to 
instruct  women  in  love  for  work  for  others.  It 
nerved  them  to  labor  for  self-support  and  for  the 
support  of  those  who  were  now  dependent  upon 
them  because  the  strong  arm  had  fallen  and  the 
willing  heart  had  ceased  to  beat.  Before  the  year 
1861  had  closed,  there  were  a  million  women  in 
this  country  earning  their  daily  bread  by  honor- 
able labor.  As  time  went  on,  and  the  slaughter 
continued,  and  the  nation's  debt  piled  up,  and 
prices  became  almost  fabulous,  more  and  more 
women  asked  through  blinding  tears,  "What 
can  I  do  ? "  Every  trade  was  thrown  open  to 
women,  and  the  laws  had  placed  the  married 
woman  where  she  could  compete  on  equal 
terms  with  her  unmarried  sister,  even  though 
13 


194  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

she  still  had  the  advantage  of  a  husband's  sup- 
port. 

A  great  pother  has  lately  been  made  by  Suf- 
frage workers  in  New  York  because  a  bill  was 
proposed  prohibiting  married  women  from  teach- 
ing in  the  public  schools.  This  has  been  the  un- 
written law  in  many  places  for  years.  The  prac- 
tice was  adopted  to  offset  the  maintenance  of 
married  women.  Teachers  should  receive  more 
pay,  but  so  should  poets  and  artists,  and  we  all 
hope  the  time  will  come  when  brain  work  will 
have  more  tangible  market  value. 

The  sewing-machine  had  thrown  women  out 
of  employment,  as  with  it  one  woman  could  do 
the  work  of  many.  The  number  of  work-seekers 
was  enlarged  by  the  influx,  from  the  desolated 
South,  of  women  whose  entire  living  had  been 
swept  away.  This  army  of  uneducated  workers 
from  all  sections  were  compelled  not  only  to  com- 
pete with  men  but  with  themselves  as  well.  They 
sought,  and  could  seek,  only  the  lighter  employ- 
ments. Suffragists  had  their  wish  in  regard  to 
man's  relinquishment  of  the  "  profitable  employ- 
ments," but  not  in  the  way  they  intended.  The 
women  for  whose  sake  those  profitable  employ- 
ments had  been  "monopolized"  were  now  not 
only  allowed  by  law  but  compelled  by  circum- 
stance to  toil  from  sun  to  sun  at  the  best  they 
could  find  to  do ;  their  frailer  organizations  were 
forced  to  bear  "  the  double  curse  of  work  and 
pain."  A  nobler  army  of  martyrs  never  turned 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.     195 

their  sorrows  into  blessings  by  the  spirit  in  which 
they  met  them,  than  the  American  women  who 
put  their  shoulders  to  the  wheels  of  business  that 
were  moving  in  a  hundred  ways. 

In  1843  a  humble  beginning  at  industrial  educa- 
tion for  girls  had  been  made  by  the  Female 
Guardian  Society.  In  1854  Peter  Cooper  estab- 
lished the  Cooper  Union  with  its  generous  facili- 
ties for  women  in  industry  and  the  arts.  The 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association  was 
founded  in  Normal,  Illinois,  in  1872,  and  its  work 
in  the  industrial  branch  spread,  before  many 
years,  to  every  city  and  town  in  the  land.  Men 
originated  for  women  the  first  "  Woman's  Pro-' 
tective  Union."  In  twenty-five  years  it  had 
reported  legal  suits  won  for  12,000  women,  and 
$41,000  collected.  In  1869  the  great  organization 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor  was  founded,  and  in  its 
body  of  rules  was  one  "  to  secure  for  both  sexes 
equal  pay  for  equal  Avork."  Failure  proves  that 
labor  cannot,  any  more  than  paper,  be  coined  into 
money  by  the  mere  fiat  of  a  government  or  an 
organization. 

But  the  great  impulse  to  industrial  education 
came  through  the  Centennial  Exposition  held  at 
Philadelphia  in  1876.  While  the  land  was  filled 
with  the  hum  of  preparation,  as  their  contribution 
to  that  indication  of  peaceful  progress,  the  Suf- 
frage Associations  were  rolling  up  another  peti- 
tion in  which  to  set  forth  their  wrongs.  After 
General  Hawley,  manager  of  the  Exposition,  had 


196  WOMAN  AND  TUE  REPUBLIC. 

courteously  refused  to  receive  it  in  a  public  meet- 
ing, it  was  "  pressed  upon  the  Nation's  heart  "  by 
delegates  who  pushed  their  way  into  Independence 
Hall.  Outside  that  historic  building,  under  the 
broiling  sun,  with  Matilda  Joslyn  Gage  to  hold  an 
umbrella  over  her,  Miss  Anthony  read  aloud  a 
"  Declaration  of  Independence "  that  re-echoed 
the  sentiments  of  their  first  Declaration.  It  began 
by  saying :  "  While  the  nation  is  buoyant  with 
patriotism,  and  all  hearts  are  attuned  to  praise,  it 
is  with  sorrow  we  come  to  strike  the  one  discord- 
ant note  " — a  typical  and  prophetic  sentence. 

From  1876  girls,  as  well  as  boys,  received  man- 
ual training  in  the  public  schools,  and  when  that 
proved  impracticable,  the  way  was  found  to  open 
industrial  schools  that  should  include  classes  for 
girls.  Every  State,  and  almost  every  city  and 
town  of  any  size,  had  them.  It  was  not  long  ere 
multitudes  of  societies  and  organizations  furnished 
means  for  women's  education  in  business  and 
mechanic  arts.  The  growth  of  the  philanthropy 
of  self-help  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  past 
twenty-five  years,  and  women,  without  the  ballot, 
have  largely  assisted  in  developing  it. 

John  Graham  Brooks,  in  a  lecture  delivered  in 
New  York  in  the  winter  of  1895-6,  on  "  Some 
Economic  Aspects  of  the  Woman  Question,"  said : 
"  Woman  who  used  to  do  her  work  in  the  house 
now  does  it  in  the  factory,  and  the  same  work,  doing 
her  work  under  absolutely  new  and  different  con- 
ditions, a  change  so  great  that  it  closes  finally  one 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.    197 

argument  that  I  hear  again  and  again  by  those 
opposed  to  woman  suffrage — namely,  that  the 
place  for  woman  is  in  the  home." 

One  condition  under  which  she  works  that  is 
not  "  absolutely  new  and  different "  is  that  of  sex. 
Whatever  as  a  woman  she  could  not  do  in  the 
home  she  cannot  do  abroad  as  a  working-woman. 
She  is  in  business  as  a  business  woman,  not 
as  a  business  man.  Economic  equality  in  such 
things  as  she  can  do  is  as  unlike  to  a  sim- 
ilarity in  work  which  ignores  sex  conditions  as  a 
business  corporation  is  to  the  government  under 
whose  laws  it  exists  and  by  which  its  rights  are 
defended.  But  even  the  external  conditions  are 
not  so  changed  as  might  at  first  appear.  The 
statistical  proof  of  the  youth  of  the  majority  of 
workers,  the  comparatively  small  number  out  of 
the  whole  population  who  go  into  business,  and  the 
fact  that  the  domestic  work  for  these  very  work- 
ers must  be  done  by  women,  all  show  this. 

The  United  States  Census  of  1890  shows  that 
not  quite  four  million  women  are  "engaged  in 
gainful  occupations."  Of  these  more  than  one 
and  a  half  million  are  in  domestic  service,  and 
nearly  half  a  million  in  professional  service, 
mainly  as  teachers.  The  most  striking  gain  has 
been  made  in  the  lighter  forms  of  profitable  labor 
— by  stenographers,  typewriters,  telegraph  and 
telephone  operators,  cashiers,  bookkeepers,  etc. 
In  1870  there  were  19,828  of  these  ;  in  1890,  there 
were  228,421.  The  invention  of  the  type-writing 


198  WOMAN  AND  TUE  REPUBLIC. 

machine  appears  to  be  the  ballot  that  has  mainly 
produced  this  result.  Carrol  D.  "Wright  says  that 
in  twenty  cities  examined  in  the  United  States  he 
found,  among  17,000  working- women,  that  15,887 
were  single,  1,038  were  widows,  and  745  were 
married.  This  tells  the  same  story.  The  mass  of 
these  women,  like  the  mass  of  men,  are  working, 
not  for  public  influence  or  station,  but  for  the  own- 
ing and  holding  of  a  home.  The  latest  effort  in 
self-help  for  the  working  class  is  the  wise  one  of 
building  them  good  homes.  The  best  renting  pro- 
perty has  been  found  to  be  that  which  gives  privacy 
and  those  distinctions  that  mark  the  family. 

The  latest  report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of 
Statistics  of  Labor  shows  that  of  8,040  persons 
who  registered  for  employment  in  New  York  city, 
6,458  were  men,  and  1,582  were  women.  Of 
these,  the  foreign-born  numbered  4,804,  of  whom 
3,674  were  men  and  1,140  were  women.  The 
native-born  numbered  3,234,  of  whom  2,796  were 
men,  and  442  were  women.  The  list  included 
every  trade  and  profession,  from  that  of  day 
laborer  to  that  of  clergyman,  from  that  of  school 
teacher  to  that  of  domestic  servant,  and  showed 
that  in  the  city  where  more  women  are  employed 
than  in  any  other  place,  the  proportion  of  women 
to  men  was  less  than  one  fifth,  and  of  native 
American  to  foreign-born  women  two  fifths. 

Mr.  Brooks  would  favor  suffrage  because  "  in 
this  new  career  there  are  reasons  for  every  whit 
of  protection."  He  mentions,  as  proof  of  woman's 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.     199 

changed  attitude  as  an  industrial  unit,  that  the 
Supreme  Courts  of  Illinois  and  California  have 
decided  against  special  legislation  for  women. 
They  did  so  on  the  ground  that  "  they  were  now 
earning  their  livelihood  under  men's  conditions,  and 
should  not  have  special  legislation  in  business  re- 
lations." If  Mr.  Brooks  thinks  that  women  wish 
the  ballot  to  restore  the  special  legislation,  he  does 
not  know  the  Suffrage  demand  for  equality.  In 
England,  when  the  laws  were  under  discussion 
that  forbid  the  employment  of  women  more  than 
a  certain  number  of  hours,  and  of  children  under 
certain  ages,  the  "Woman  Suffrage  leaders  pro- 
tested against  the  former  as  an  infringement  of 
personal  rights  and  the  ability  to  make  contracts. 
But  the  special  legislation  for  business  women 
goes  on,  because,  after  all,  the  State  knows  that 
they  are  business  women,  and  not  business  men, 
and  the  Suffrage  quarrel  in  regard  to  privilege 
versus  right  goes  on  also. 

Before  the  Committee  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention,  Mrs.  Ecob,  of  Albany,  said  :  "  You 
speak  of  chivalry.  "We  scorn  the  word  !  What 
has  your  chivalry  done  for  the  weaker  sex  ? 
Women  are  the  upaid  laborers  of  the  world — out- 
casts in  government."  Mrs.  Hood,  of  Brooklyn, 
on  the  same  occasion  said :  "  Who  dares  insult 
our  American  manhood  by  declaring  that  men 
will  be  less  courteous  to  mother,  wife,  and  sister, 
because  they  are  political  equals?  Woman's 
equality  in  the  industrial  world  has  to-day  pro- 


200  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

duced  a  nobler,   better  chivalry  than  was  ever 
conceived  by  the  knights  of  old." 

These  two  Suffrage  leaders  will  have  to  settle 
between  themselves  the  question  which  they  have 
placed  in  dispute.  It  serves  to  point  the  moral  of 
dilemma  that  attends  an  attempted  adjustment 
of  unnatural  claims.  Meantime  government  is 
caring  for  the  weak,  and  chivalry  is  doing  justice. 
The  Labor  Law  that  went  into  effect  in  this  State 
on  September  1st  provided  that  children  be  clas- 
sified so  that  those  under  fourteen  years  should 
not  be  employed  in  mercantile  pursuits.  Chil- 
dren between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  fourteen  will 
be  permitted  to  work  in  vacation,  if  they  can 
show  that  they  have  attended  school  through  the 
year.  The  girls  between  fourteen  and  twenty- 
one  are  not  to  be  allowed  to  work  more  than  ten 
hours  a  day.  Their  employment  before  7  A.  M. 
and  after  10  P.  M.  is  forbidden.  Women  and 
children  are  not  allowed  to  work  in  basements, 
without  permits  from  the  Health  Board  as  to  the 
condition  of  the  basement.  Seats  are  to  be  pro- 
vided for  woman  employees,  forty-five  minutes 
given  them  for  luncheon,  and  proper  lunch  and 
toilet  rooms  to  be  secured.  Penalties,  ranging 
from  a  fine  of  $20  for  the  first  offence  to  impris- 
onment, are  prescribed  for  violation  of  the  law.  In 
his  last  report,  published  in  January  1897,  the  New 
York  Commissioner  of  Labor  considers  the  low 
wages  and  petty  wrongs  of  working  women  and 
girls  in  New  York  City.  He  advises  the  forma- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.    201 

tion  of  unions  among  themselves  for  their  better 
protection. 

Mr.  Brooks  does  not  agree  with  those  who 
claim  that  possession  of  the  ballot  would  raise 
wages.  Mrs.  Ames  and  Dr.  Jacobi  think  it  would 
only  raise  them  through  the  indirect  influence  of 
the  greater  respect  in  which  the  worker  would  be 
held.  This  is  safe  ground  again,  because  it  is 
debatable ;  but  the  domestic  servants  of  those  who 
hold  the  former  opinion  might  give  them  an 
object-lesson.  Unfranchised  as  the  servants  are, 
they  have  only  to  make  a  threat  of  leaving  to 
secure  better  wages. 

Harriette  A.  Keyser,  who  was  the  special  Suf- 
frage champion  of  the  working- woman  before  the 
Committee  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  gave 
not  one  fact  or  figure  to  show  that  the  working- 
woman,  where  she  had  the  ballot,  had  already 
been  helped  by  it,  or  that  it  was  likely  to  help 
her,  or  how  and  why  it  might  help  her.  Among 
the  generalities  she  uttered  was  the  following; 
"  But  the  greatest  value  of  the  working-woman, 
to  my  mind,  is  that  without  her  economic  value 
this  present  demand  for  equal  suffrage  could 
never  be  made.  Indeed,  the  suffrage  of  the 
world  is  due  to  her.  Do  I  mean  by  this  that 
every  working-woman  in  the  country  sees  her 
own  value  so  clearly  that  she  demands  enfran- 
chisement ?  I  could  not  say  this  with  truth.  I 
make  this  statement  irrespective  of  what  any  in- 
dividual working- woman  may  think.  It  is  based 


202  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

upon  what  she  is.  As  through  the  last  half  cent- 
ury the  contention  for  equal  rights  has  continued, 
the  working-woman  has  been  the  great  object- 
lesson.  It  was  not  from  women  of  leisure,  having 
all  the  rights  they  want,  that  inspiration  has  been 
received.  It  has  been  caught  from  the  patient 
worker,  healing  the  sick,  writing  the  book,  paint- 
ing the  picture,  teaching  the  children,  tilling  the 
soil,  working  in  the  factory,  serving  in  the  house- 
hold. Every  stroke  of  these  workers  has  been 
a  protest  against  a  disfranchised  individuality." 
Miss  Keyser  has  mentioned  most  of  the  classes  in 
this  country,  for,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes, 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  leisure  class,  in  the 
sense  of  an  idle  class,  of  women.  Women  are 
almost  universally  industrious,  and  it  is  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  their  early  industry  in  the  house 
was  not  as  much  appreciated  and  counted  in  the 
general  fund  of  work  as  their  more  public  activity 
now.  It  is  well  for  Miss  Keyser  to  make  her 
estimate  of  the  Suffrage  value  of  the  working- 
woman  one  that  shall  have  no  reference  to  the 
expressed  views  of  the  working-woman  herself ; 
because  the  working-woman  seems  almost  univer- 
sally not  only  unconscious  of  but  indifferent  to 
her  attitude  as  a  great  object-lesson  in  favor  of 
the  ballot.  But  here  is  something  new.  Suf- 
fragists have  first  claimed  that  there  could  be  no 

o 

working-woman  unless  there  was  a  ballot  in 
woman's  hand ;  then  they  claimed  that,  although 
there  was  a  working-woman  despite  the  fact  that 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.    203 

she  had  not  been  enfranchised,  she  was  made  by 
the  agitation  for  the  ballot ;  and  now  comes  Miss 
Keyser  to  say  that,  not  only  is  the  working- 
woman  not  due  to  the  ballot,  or  to  ballot-seeking, 
but  "  the  suffrage  of  the  world  is  due  to  her,"  for 
"  without  her  economic  value  this  present  demand 
for  equal  suffrage  could  never  have  been  made ! " 
Tar  baby  ain't  sayin'  nuthin'. 

Dr.  Jacobi,  in  "  Common  Sense,"  says :  "  What- 
ever may  be  the  personal  privileges  of  their  lot, 
whatever  the  legal  protection  accorded  to  their 
earnings,  the  public  status  of  such  a  class  remains 
strictly  that  of  aliens.  At  the  present  moment 
this  vast  and  constantly  growing  army  of  women 
industrials  constitutes  an  alien  class.  The  priva- 
tion for  that  class  of  political  right  to  defend  its 
interests  is  only  masked,  but  not  compensated,  by 
its  numerous  inter-relations  with  those  who  have 
rights."  So  they  are  conceded  to  have  personal 
privileges,  and  legal  protection  for  earnings.  The 
alienism  is  then  purely  political,  and  works  no  hard- 
ship but  what  Suffragists  conceive  to  be  in  the  men- 
tal attitude  of  the  worker. 

Foreign  capitalists  who  own  land  or  plant  in 
the  United  States  are  unfranchised.  We  have 
large  numbers  of  men  working  in  trades  and  pro- 
fessions who  never  have  been  naturalized,  but  we 
do  not  dream  that  all  these  constitute  an  alien 
class  of  industrials.  No  distinction  is  made  in 
business  opportunity  between  the  voter  and  non- 
voter.  Neither  is  any  social  distinction  made 


204  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

regarding  worker  or  employer  on  account  of  the 
relations  of  either  to  the  ballot.  Market  value  is 
not  measured  by  suffrage,  except  in  dishonorable 
transactions,  and  the  women  "  with  ballots  in  their 
hands  "  are  not  the  Government's  preferred  credi- 
tors. The  men  in  the  District  of  Columbia  are  not 
conscious  of  lower  wages  and  industrial  ostracism. 
Again,  Dr.  Jacobi  says  :  "  The  share  of  women  in 
political  rights  and  life — imperfect  and  deferred 
during  the  predominance  of  militarism — has  be- 
come natural,  has  become  inevitable,  with  the 
advent  of  industrialism,  in  which  they  so  largely 
share." 

Industrialism  has  no  more  power  to  change  the 
basis  of  government  than  the  abolition  movement 
had  when  certain  advocates  of  it  shouted  that  it 
was  "sinful  to  vote  or  hold  office,  because  the 
government  was  founded  upon  physical  force  and 
maintained  itself  by  muskets."  Industrialism  is 
bringing  into  this  country  some  of  the  gravest 
problems  it  has  ever  met.  The  sympathy  of  the 
people  is  on  the  side  of  labor  that  uses  honorable 
means ;  but  Cleveland  and  Leadville  are  among 
the  places  that  suggest  afresh  the  fact  that 
industrialism  must  be  kept  in  order  for  its  own 
sake,  for  the  sake  of  general  peace,  and  for  the 
sake  of  its  increasing  ranks  of  "  alien  "  women 
who  look  to  it  for  "  every  whit  of  protection," 
save  that  which  their  own  self-respect  and  that  of 
public  opinion  can  win  them. 

Again,  Dr.  Jacobi  says :  "  Notwithstanding 
the  repression  of  women's  civil  rights,  and  their 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.     205 

absolute  exclusion  from  even  the  dream  of  a  po- 
litical sphere,  the  women  of  France  engage  more 
freely  than  anywhere  else  in  business  and  in- 
dustry." There  is  a  moral  here  deeper  than  can 
be  read  at  a  glance.  The  first  thought  suggested 
is,  that  industrial  success  for  woman  is  not  in  the 
least  dependent  upon  the  vote,  The  second  is, 
that  industrial  progress  does  not  command  the 
vote.  The  third  is,  that  American  freedom  has 
worked  in  the  opposite  direction  from  French 
unstable  republicanism.  And  the  fourth  is,  that 
industrious  France  stands  appalled  at  the  lack 
of  increase  of  its  population.  There  are  many 
forces  that  sap  its  national  life,  but  perhaps 
the  most  conspicuous  is  the  socialistic  and 
anarchistic  tendency  of  its  labor  organizations. 
The  woman-suffrage  idea  was  first  openly  pro- 
claimed during  the  French  Revolution.  In  1851 
the  annual  Suffrage  Convention  in  this  country 
was  called  by  Paulina  "Wright  Davis,  to  meet  in 
Worcester,  Mass.  Ernestine  Rose  read  to  the 
convention  two  letters  addressed  to  that  body 
through  her,  written  by  Jeanne  Deroine  and 
Pauline  Roland,  from  a  Paris  prison.  During 
the  revolutionary  movements  of  1848,  these 
women  had  played  conspicuous  roles.  One  of 
them  had  attempted  to  nominate  the  mayor  in  her 
native  city,  the  other  to  be  a  candidate  for  the 
Legislative  Assembly.  They  wrote  :  "  Sisters  of 
America  !  Your  socialist  sisters  of  France  are 
united  with  you  in  the  vindication  of  the  right  of 


206  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

woman  to  civil  and  political  equality.  We  have, 
moreover,  the  profound  conviction  that  only  by 
the  power  of  association  based  on  solidarity — by 
the  union  of  the  working-classes  of  both  sexes 
in  organized  labor,  can  be  acquired,  completely 
and  pacifically,  the  civil  and  political  equality  of 
woman,  and  the  social  right  for  all." 

I  know  the  feud,  and  the  grounds  for  it,  be- 
tween socialism  and  anarchy.  But  both  are 
enemies  of  the  social  order,  and  both  are  favorers 
of  woman  suffrage.  How  "  pacifically  "  the  labor 
movement  that  originated  in  France  in  1848,  and 
spread  throughout  Europe,  was  likely  to  proceed, 
we  may  judge  by  its  constant  outbreaks  kindred 
to  the  recent  bomb-throwing  in  Paris.  In  the 
German  Working-man's  Union,  Hasenclever,  for 
many  years  the  leading  socialist  in  the  German 
Reichstag,  said :  "  The  Woman  Question  would 
be  taken  by  the  developed,  or,  more  correctly 
speaking,  the  communistic  state,  under  its  own 
control,  for  in  this  state "  (which  was  to  consist 
of  men  and  women  with  equal  vqte)  "  when  the 
community  bears  the  obligation  of  maintaining 
the  children,  and  no  private  capital  exists,  the 
woman  need  no  longer  be  chained  to  one  man. 
The  bond  between  the  sexes  will  be  merely  a 
moral  one,  and  if  the  characters  do  not  harmonize 
could  be  dissolved."  The  "  Social  Democrat "  of 
Copenhagen  has  for  mottoes :  "  All  men  and 
women  over  twenty-one  should  vote."  "  There 
should  be  institutions  for  the  proper  bringing 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.    207 

up  of  children."  All  the  communistic  and  anar- 
chistic labor  organizations  in  Germany,  France, 
Switzerland,  Denmark,  and  England  proclaim 
woman  suffrage  as  a  prime  factor,  and  the  disrup- 
tion of  the  family  as  its  corollary. 

There  are  many  who  remember  the  visit  to  this 
country  of  the  socialist,  Dr.  Aveling,  and  his  (so- 
called)  wife,  the  daughter  of  Karl  Marx.  His 
legal  wife  had  been  left  in  England.  Miss  Marx 
said,  in  reply  to  the  question  of  a  Chicago  lady, 
that  love  was  the  only  recognized  marriage  in 
Socialism,  consequently  no  bonds  of  any  kind 
would  be  required.  Divorces  would  be  impos- 
sible ;  for  when  love  ceased,  separation  would 
naturally  ensue. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Woman's  Council  held  in 
"Washington,  in  1888,  Mrs.  Stanton  said  :  "I  have 
often  said  to  men  of  the  present  day  that  the  next 
generation  of  women  will  not  stand  arguing  with 
you  as  patiently  as  we  have  for  half  a  century. 
The  organizations  of  labor  all  over  the  country 
are  holding  out  their  hands  to  women.  The  time 
is  not  far  distant  when,  if  men  do  not  do  justice 
to  women,  the  women  will  strike  hands  with 
labor,  with  socialists,  with  anarchists,  and  you 
will  have  the  scenes  of  the  Revolution  of  France 
acted  over  again  in  this  republic." 

Mrs.  Stanton  Blatch,  daughter  of  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  in  her  lecture  in  this  country  two 
years  ago  on  "The  Economic  Emancipation  of 
Woman,"  said  that  she  rejoiced  in  every  co-oper- 


208  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

ative  working-woman's  dwelling,  because  it  was 
a  blow  aimed  at  the  isolated  home,  and  she  has 
just  repeated  in  New  York  her  proposition  for  the 
institutional  care  of  children.  Alice  Hyneman 
Rhine,  in  her  article  on  "  "Woman's  Work  in 
America,"  says  of  socialistic  labor,  "It  aims  to 
benefit  woman  by  recognizing  her  as  a  perfect 
equal  of  man,  politically  and  socially  ;  by  fixing 
woman's  means  of  support  by  the  state  so  as  to 
render  her  independent  of  man."  "  Freedom,"  a 
radical  socialistic  newspaper  published  in  Chicago, 
where  Emma  Goldman  and  her  ilk  have  revealed 
the  true  inwardness  of  such  movements,  recom- 
mends as  the  first  step  "  equal  rights  for  all,  with- 
out distinction  of  race  or  sex,"  and  the  abolition 
of  "  class  rule."  Our  most  radical  socialistic 
Labor  National  Convention  in  New  York,  this 
year,  had  four  woman  delegates. 

The  Knights  of  Labor  who  first  put  "  equal  pay 
for  equal  work"  into  their  platform,  appeared 
in  their  late  convention,  under  the  lead  of  Sover- 
eign, who  declared  that  Gov.  Altgeld  "  was  one 
of  the  finest  types  of  American  manhood  to-day." 
They  seem  to  be  drifting  toward  that  phase  of 
Socialism  to  which  Alice  Hyneman  Rhine  referred. 
There  are  no  greater  tyrants  than  some  of  the 
Labor  organizations,  and  one  evidence  of  this  is 
the  fact  that  they  prevent  the  colored  man  from 
doing  any  work  outside  of  a  few  of  the  least 
noble  occupations. 

With  such  edged  tools  as  these  are  our  Ameri- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  TRADES.    209 

can  women  playing  when  they  demand,  in  the 
name  of  democracy,  in  the  name  of  the  family,  in 
the  name  of  the  working-woman,  that  the  word 
"  sex  "  shall  be  inserted  in  the  United  States  Con- 
stitution, and  the  word  "  male  "  be  stricken  from 
every  State  constitution  that  now  contains  it. 


CHAPTEK  YII. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  PROFESSION*. 

THE  sixth,  count  in  the  Declaration  of  Senti- 
ments reads:  "He  closes  against  her  all  the 
avenues  to  wealth  and  distinction  which  he  con- 
siders most  honorable  to  himself.  As  a  teacher 
of  theology,  medicine,  or  law,  she  is  not  known." 

That  statement  contains  another  evidence  of 
the  untruthfulness  of  a  half  truth.  First,  it  is  an 
unwarrantable  assumption,  of  which  no  proof  is 
offered,  that  man  had  closed  against  woman  any 
avenue  to  wealth  and  distinction,  or  that  he  felt 
toward  woman  the  selfish  and  monopolizing  spirit 
implied  in  such  accusation.  Second,  but  three  of 
the  avenues,  all  of  which  he  was  said  to  have 
closed  against  her,  are  mentioned.  Whatever 
may  be  the  truth  about  those  three,  the  no  less 
honorable,  although  less  arduous,  avenues  to 
wealth  and  distinction  were  as  open  to  her  as 
to  him.  As  educator,  author,  artist,  in  painting, 
music,  and  sculpture,  she  could  freely  attain  to 
the  same  coveted  end.  The  Suffragists  did  not 
decry  man's  "  monopoly "  of  the  honorable  and 
profitable  but  severe  professions  of  civil  engineer- 
ing, seamanship,  mining  engineering,  lighthouse 
210 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  PROFESSIONS.  211 

keeping  and  inspecting,  signal  service,  military 
and  naval  duty,  and  the  like.  These,  and  the 
drudgery  of  the  world's  business  and  commerce, 
man  was  welcome  to  keep. 

But,  most  of  all,  this  Suffrage  indictment  con- 
tains, as  do  all  the  rest,  another  tacit  untruth 
when  it  assumes  that  woman's  work  has  not  in 
the  past  been  as  honorable  to  herself  and  as  prof- 
itable to  the  world  as  has  that  of  man.  By  set- 
ting up  a  false  standard  for  achievement,  and  at- 
tempting to  make  everything  conform  to  it,  the 
Suffrage  movement  has  done  incalculable  harm. 
It  is  not  progressing  to  push  into  an  unwonted 
place  merely  because  it  is  unwonted,  and  because 
you  can  push  in.  It  is  progress  to  enter  it  in 
response  both  to  an  inward  and  an  outward  need. 

When  the  first  Suffrage  convention  had  adopted 
the  Declaration  of  Sentiments,  Lucretia  Mott 
offered  a  resolution,  which  was  also  adopted, 
declaring  that  "  the  speedy  success  of  our  cause 
depends  upon  the  zealous  and  untiring  efforts  of 
men  and  women  for  the  overthrow  of  the  monop- 
oly of  the  pulpit,  and  for  the  securing  to  woman 
an  equal  participation  with  men  in  the  various 
trades,  professions,  and  commerce." 

The  most  remarkable  thing  about  this  resolu- 
tion is,  that  it  was  promulgated  by  a  woman  who 
was  at  that  very  time  a  gifted  and  eloquent 
preacher,  so  that  to  her,  who  cared  for  it  so  highly, 
man  had  not  closed  that  avenue  to  wealth  and 
distinction.  As  she  had  a  husband  to  support  her 


212  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

and  her  children,  she  was  much  more  free  to 
attain  those  desirable  ends  than  most  of  the  min- 
isters who  were  preaching  for  humanity's  sake 
and  the  gospel's,  at  salaries  ranging  from  five 
hundred  to  two  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  who 
had  families  to  support  out  of  their  slender  pit- 
tance. If  any  woman  was  in  a  position  to  "  over- 
throw the  monopoly  of  the  pulpit,"  surely  she 
was.  Stately  and  beautiful  of  mien,  fervent  in 
spirit,  eloquent  in  language,  one  who  had  learned 
the  Hebrew  and  Greek  that  she  might  read  the 
Scriptures  in  the  original  tongues,  what  did  she 
lack  ?  Not  only  was  no  pulpit  of  another  faith 
than  hers  ever  opened  to  her,  but  more  than  half 
those  of  her  own  form  of  worship  were  closed 
against  hearing  the  inner  voice  as  interpreted  by 
her.  In  that  schism  that  rent  the  Society  of 
Friends  as  no  other  religious  body  has  ever  been 
rent,  she  threw  in  her  fortunes,  or  led  others  to 
throw  in  their  fortunes  (for  she  had  been  preach- 
ing nine  years  when  the  division  occurred),  with 
that  portion  that  placed  the  "  inner  light "  above 
all  Scripture.  When  the  Friends  came  from  the 
London  meeting  to  testify  against  the  teachings 
of  the  schismatics,  they  besought  Lucretia  Mott  to 
return  to  the  faith  of  her  childhood,  but  she 
resisted  from  conviction  that  she  was  right.  Elias 
Hicks,  her  leader,  had  instigated  the  members  of 
his  congregation  to  refuse  to  pay  their  taxes  to 
the  Government  during  and  following  the  war  of 
1812,  on  the  ground  that  they  represented  an 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  PROFESSIONS.  213 

encroachment  of  the  secular  power  on  Christian 
liberty,  and  were  used  to  support  war,  which  was 
sin.  Lucretia  Mott  preached  that  "  no  Christian 
can  consistently  uphold  a  government  based  on 
the  sword,  or  relying  on  that  as  an  ultimate 
resort."  The  country  has  always  suffered  from 
this  doctrine.  The  Tory  Quakers  of  the  Revolu- 
tion called  publicly  upon  Friends  "  to  withstand 
and  refuse  to  submit "  "  to  instructions  and  ordi- 
nances "  not  warranted  by  "  that  happy  Constitu- 
tion under  which  we  have  long  enjoyed  tran- 
quillity and  peace."  Thomas  Paine,  whose  parents 
were  Friends,  in  "  The  Crisis,"  says :  "  The  com- 
mon phrase  of  these  people  is,  '  Our  principles  are 
peace.'  To  which  it  may  be  replied,  '  and  your 
practices  are  the  reverse.' "  Another  striking  in- 
stance of  this  disagreement  between  principle  and 
practice  is  seen  in  Lucretia  Mott's  behavior.  From 
the  platform  where  she  demanded  the  ballot  for 
woman,  she  proclaimed  that  all  voting  was  sinful. 
That  bodies  of  people  who  so  held  should  con- 
tinue to  enjoy  the  Government's  protection  of 
themselves  and  their  property,  through  the  sacri- 
fices made  by  those  who  carried  on  government 
by  giving  willingly  their  money  and  their  strength, 
is  a  proof  of  our  wonderful  freedom. 

Elizabeth  Fry  and  most  of  the  English  Friends 
would  not  mention  the  name  of  Mrs.  Mott.  Mrs. 
Stanton  once  asked  her  what  she  would  have  done 
after  the  Hicksite  faction  had  been  voted  out  of 
meeting  at  the  "World's  Conventicle  of  Friends  in 


214  WOMAN  AND  TI1E  REPUBLIC. 

London,  if  the  spirit  had  moved  her  to  speak  when 
the  chairman  and  members  had  moved  that  she 
be  silent,  and  she  answered,  "  Where  the  spirit 
of  God  is,  there  is  liberty."  This  is  the  liberty  of 
anarchy,  and  it  had  its  due  weight  in  the  Suffrage 
movement.  Mrs.  Stanton,  in  the  course  of  a 
eulogy  pronounced  at  Mrs.  Mott's  funeral,  said : 
"  The  '  vagaries '  of  the  Anti-slavery  struggle,  in 
which  Lucretia  Mott  took  a  leading  part,  have 
been  coined  into  law  ;  and  the  '  wild  fantasies '  of 
the  Abolitionists  are  now  the  Thirteenth,  Four- 
teenth, and  Fifteenth  amendments  to  the  National 
Constitution.  .  .  .  The'  infidel '  Hicksite  principles 
that  shocked  Christendom  are  now  the  corner- 
stones of  the  liberal  religious  movement  in  this 
country."  The  vagaries  of  the  Anti-slavery 
struggle  are  exactly  those  that  were  not  coined 
into  law.  The  wild  fantasies  of  the  Abolitionists 
were  rejected  by  those  whose  sober  judgment  and 
steady  courage  made  possible  the  last  constitu- 
tional amendments.  And  no  truer  is  it  that  the 
"  infidel "  Hicksite  principles  are  the  corner-stones 
of  any  genuine  movement  of  Christian  liberality. 
"While  the  Friends  mourn  that  infidelity  and 
Roman  Catholicism  have  made  inroads  upon  their 
progress  in  some  places,  they  have  steadily  ad- 
vanced in  the  other  direction  from  that  pointed 
out  by  Lucretia  Mott.  Their  educated  and  paid 
ministry,  their  First-day  schools,  their  missions, 
home  and  foreign,  their  music,  and  simple  but  set 
forms,  their  reports  to  London  of  "  conversion  and 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  PROFESSIONS.  215 

profession  of  faith/'  and  their  rapid  growth  where 
these  things  have  taken  place,  all  indicate  the 
truth  of  this.  The  large  meeting  at  Swartmore 
College,  in  the  summer  of  1896,  is  another  evidence. 

The  proportion  of  woman  preachers  to  the  dif- 
ferent denominations  is  as  follows :  The  Hicksite- 
Quakers  (as  against  the  orthodox)  have  the  most. 
So  have  the  German  Methodists  (United  Brethren) 
as  against  the  orthodox  Methodists.  The  Free- 
Will  Baptists,  as  against  the  orthodox  Baptists, 
ordain  more  woman  preachers.  The  Universalist 
preceded  the  Unitarian  church  in  so  doing.  The 
Presbyterian  and  Congregational  churches,  as  a 
body,  have  taken  no  steps  in  that  direction.  In 
the  Congregational  denomination  any  separate 
body  of  worshippers  can  ordain  whom  it  sees  fit. 
The  Roman  Catholic  and  Episcopal  churches  have 
orders  which  band  women  as  religious  workers  and 
remove  them  more  or  less  from  the  ordinary  life  of 
the  world,  but  they  have  taken  no  steps  toward  or- 
daining women  for  the  ministry. 

We  may  note  that  the  denominations  that  have 
been  foremost  in  building  colleges  for  woman, 
and  in  promoting  her  general  advancement  in  pro- 
fessions and  trades,  as  well  as  in  social  and  phil- 
anthropic matters,  are  the  ones  whose  pulpits  she 
has  not  entered.  They  are  also  those  by  which 
she  is  most  cordially  welcomed  to  speak  on  all 
Christian  and  philanthropic  themes.  Where  her 
influence  is  most  broadly  felt,  she  has  not  been 
taken  out  of  the  ordinary  life  that  she  was  meant 


216  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

to  share  and  to  SAvay.  It  was  from  the  great  de- 
nominations that  she  first  crossed  the  threshold  of 
home  to  carry  home  love  and  principle  to  foreign 
countries.  In  missions  she  has  served  in  every  con- 
ceivable form  of  public  benevolence,  side  by  side 
with  man.  Eeal  reforms  work  from  within. 
If  the  time  comes  when  the  other  branches  of  the 
Christian  Church  feel  as  do  a  few  at  present,  that 
the  exercise  of  the  ministerial  office  is  consistent 
and  appropriate  for  woman,  one  that  compels  no 
sacrifice  of  the  life  and  work  that  are,  and  must 
be,  peculiarly  her  own,  the  ballot  will  not  be 
needed  to  place  her  or  to  keep  her  in  their  pulpits. 
Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  profession  of 
the  ministry  for  woman,  it  must  certainly  be 
acknowledged  that  it  is  the  one  farthest  removed 
from  political  thought  and  action.  If  any  class 
of  women  should  be  glad  to  be  exempted  from  the 
vote,  it  is  the  woman  preachers. 

In  her  book,  "Common  Sense,"  Dr.  Jacobi 
says :  "  The  profession  of  medicine  was  thrown 
open  to  women  when,  in  1849,  the  year  following 
the  Revolution,  and  the  passage  of  the  Married 
"Woman's  Property  Rights  Bill,  New  York  State 
for  the  first  time,  at  Geneva,  conferred  a  medical 
diploma  on  a  woman,  Elizabeth  Blackwell.  She 
was,  or  rather  she  became,  the  sister-in-law  of 
Lucy  Stone ;  and  the  work  of  these  two  women, 
the  one  in  medicine,  the  other  for  equal  suffrage, 
constituted  the  two  necessary  halves  of  one  idea." 

In  1848,  when  the  first  Suffrage  convention  was 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  PROFESSIONS.  217 

held,  twelve  women  were  studying  medicine  in 
different  parts  of  the  country.  Dr.  Elizabeth 
Blackwell  was  studying  that  year  in  Geneva,  and 
when  members  of  the  convention  wrote  to  con- 
gratulate her,  she  said,  in  the  course  of  her  reply  : 
u  Much  has  been  said  of  the  oppression  that  wo- 
man suffers ;  man  is  reproached  with  being  unjust, 
tyrannical,  jealous.  I  do  not  so  read  human  life." 
Dr.  Blackwell  estimates  that  within  ten  years  of 
that  time  three  hundred  women  had  been  gradu- 
ated in  medicine.  In  an  address  delivered  in  1889 
before  the  London  Medical  School  for  women  in 
London,  Dr.  Blackwell  said :  "  I  believe  that  the 
department  of  medicine  in  which  the  great  and 
beneficent  influence  of  women  may  be  specially 
exerted  is  that  of  the  family  physician.  Not  as 
specialists,  but  as  the  trusted  guides  and  wise 
counsellors  in  all  that  concerns  the  physical  welfare 
of  the  family,  they  will  find  their  most  congenial 
field  of  labor."  All  this  was  the  exact  opposite 
of  the  spirit  that  prevailed  in  the  Association  with 
which  Lucy  Stone  was  identified.  She  declaimed 
against  man's  injustice ;  and  when  it  was  pro- 
posed, after  the  civil  war  had  taught  the  power 
of  organization,  to  have  a  constitution  and  by-laws 
for  the  Suffrage  movement,  Lucy  Stone  said  that 
she  had  felt  the  "thumb-screws  and  the  soul- 
screws,"  and  did  not  wish  to  be  placed  under  them 
again.  "  Our  duty  is  merely  agitation.''  After  a 
stormy  quarrel,  she  left  to  form  a  new  association 
in  New  England.  Elizabeth  Blackwell's  name  is 


218  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

conspicuous  for  its  absence  from  Suffrage  annals. 
In  the  letter  referred  to  she  wrote :  "  The  exclu- 
sion and  constraint  woman  suffers  is  not  the  result 
of  purposed  injury  or  premeditated  insult.  It  has 
arisen  naturally,  without  violence,  because  woman 
has  desired  nothing  more,  has  not  felt  the  soul  too 
large  for  the  body.  But  when  woman,  with 
matured  strength,  with  steady  purpose,  presents 
her  lofty  claim,  all  barriers  will  give  way,  and 
man  will  welcome,  with  a  thrill  of  joy,  the  new 
birth  of  his  sister  spirit." 

The  way  in  which  barriers  have  fallen,  and  have 
been  removed  by  men,  in  order  that  woman  may 
enter  the  noble  profession  of  medicine,  is  one  of 
the  strange  stories  of  this  half  century.  The  Civil 
War,  which  taught  us  so  much,  helped  greatly 
in  this.  There  were  some  genuine  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  woman's  education  in  medicine,  and 
that  they  were  genuine  is  proved  by  the  fact  that, 
as  rapidly  as  arrangements  can  be  made  so  that 
woman  can  have  thorough  training  by  and  with 
her  own  sex,  this  is  being  done.  This  trend  is  in 
opposition  to  Suffrage  action.  Dr.  Clemence 
Lozier,  who  was  so  long  at  the  head  of  the  Suf- 
frage association  in  New  York  City,  was  the  most 
persistent  urger  of  mixed  clinics,  and  marched  in 
to  them  at  Bellevue,  at  the  head  of  her  classes, 
defying  the  delicate  instincts  of  both  men  and 
women. 

The  struggle  of  the  "  new  "  school,  which  was 
really  as  old  as  Hippocrates,  who  said  four  hun- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  PROFESSIONS.  219 

dred  years  before  Christ  that  some  remedies 
acted  by  the  rule  of  "  contraries,"  and  some  by 
the  rule  of  "  similarity,"  was  long  and  hard  com- 
pared with  that  of  the  entrance  of  woman  upon 
the  practice  of  medicine,  although  the  latter 
involved  sex  questions  and  the  former  only  forms, 
and  professional  prejudice  did  not  die  with 
woman's  adoption  of  it. 

Dr.  Jacobi  says :  "  We  are  perfectly  well  aware 
that  industrial  and  professional  competition  are 
entirely  different  matters  from  popular  sover- 
eignty. But  when  we  find  the  same  instincts 
aroused,  the  same  opposition  excited,  the  same 
arguments  advanced,  and  the  same  determination 
manifested,  by  trades  unions,  to  exclude  women 
from  trades,  by  learned  societies  to  exclude  them 
from  professions,  by  universities  to  exclude  them 
from  learning,  and  by  voters  to  exclude  them  from 
the  polls,  we  cannot  avoid  asking  whether  the 
difference  in  the  cases  is  not  balanced  by  the 
identity  in  the  mental  attitude  of  the  opponents." 
The  best  trades  unions  have  admitted  women  to 
their  protective  and  wage  associations,  or,  better 
still,  have  helped  them  to  form  their  own ;  the 
worst  trades  unions,  the  socialistic  and  anarchistic, 
have  claimed  for  them  the  right  to  vote.  The 
learned  societies  are  admitting  them  profession- 
ally as  fast  as  they  make  themselves  worthy. 
The  men  who  hold  out  against  their  admission  to 
men's  universities  are  precisely  the  class  of  men 
who  have  been  most  active  in  assisting  to  found 


220  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

for  them  equal  colleges  of  their  own,  and  they 
are  also  the  men  who  are  most  strenuous  against 
their  admission  to  the  polls.  In  medicine,  while 
co-education  is  deemed  better  than  ignorance,  the 
tendency  is  to  separate  the  sexes  in  study  as  fast 
as  facilities  can  be  made  equal.  The  opponents 
of  woman's  progress  and  those  of  woman  suffrage 
are  of  opposite  classes,  and  their  mental  attitudes 
are  entirely  different.  How  much  harm  the 
struggle  for  "popular  sovereignty"  for  women 
has  done  in  hindering  the  progress  of  industrial 
and  professional  competition,  can  be  judged  some- 
what by  the  success  of  the  latter  and  the  failure 
of  the  former  in  the  highest  fields.  It  is  a 
significant  fact  that  women  do  not  avail  them- 
selves of  opportunities  open  to  them  in  the  pro- 
fessions to  the  extent  that  it  has  been  claimed 
they  would.  The  medical  examination  advertised 
in  January,  1896,  by  the  New  York  State  Civil 
Service  Commission  for  woman  candidates,  failed 
for  lack  of  applicants,  although  the  salaries  of 
women  in  the  State  hospitals  range  from  $1,000 
to  $1,500  a  year. 

The  entrance  of  woman  upon  the  legal  profes- 
sion raised  constitutional  questions  as  to  the 
enactment  of  law ;  and  so  here,  as  in  the  matter 
of  the  school  suffrage,  we  see  how  carefully  repub- 
licanism guarded  the  post  at  which  must  stand 
the  sentinels  of  liberty.  If  it  might  involve  law- 
enforcement,  woman  could  not  practise  law  or 
vote  on  the  school  question;  but  the  Supreme 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  PROFESSIONS.  221 

Court  of  the  United  States  decided  that  "  the 
practising  of  any  profession  violates  no  law  of  the 
Federal  Constitution." 

The  study  of  law  must  prove  of  great  benefit 
to  woman,  though  here  again  it  has  already  been 
shown  that  it  is  possible  that  the  greatest  prac- 
tical advantage  she  will  derive  from  entrance  into 
this  noble  profession  will  be  from  acquiring 
knowledge  of  her  country's  laws,  and  how  to  take 
care  of  her  own  property.  Widows  and  un- 
married women  have  almost  invariably  placed 
their  moneyed  interests  in  the  hands  of  a  man, 
when  it  would  have  been  better  for  all  concerned 
that  they  should  have  spent  some  patient  thought 
on  the  details  of  their  own  affairs.  The  first 
woman  who  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  this  State 
(New  York)  was  a  teacher  in  the  Albany  Normal 
College,  and  she  still  remains  there,  and  the 
women's  classes  for  legal  -study  in  New  York  City 
have  been  largely  composed  of  those  who  had  no 
intention  of  claiming  admittance  to  the  bar.  That 
women  can  and  do  enter  all  these  professions  with 
credit  to  themselves,  and  that  they  thus  enhance 
the  feeling  of  pride  in  their  sex,  which  is  a  strong 
impulse  with  women,  is  matter  for  profound  con- 
gratulation, and  is  evidence  that  the  animus  of 
the  Suffrage  movement  is  not  that  which  stirs 
society. 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION. 

THE  seventh  count  in  the  Suffrage  indictment 
declared.:  "  He  has  denied  her  facilities  for  obtain- 
ing a  thorough  education,  all  colleges  being  closed 
against  her." 

Among  the  resolutions  passed  in  the  first  Suf- 
frage convention  was  one  demanding :  "  Equal 
rights  in  the  universities,"  and  the  first  petition 
presented  by  Suffrage  advocates  contained  a  clause 
asking  that  entrance  to  men's  colleges  be  obtained 
for  women  by  legal  enactment.  We  note  that 
this  is  far  from  being  a  demand  for  education  for 
women  equal  to  that  given  to  men  in  the  univer- 
sities. Men  have  founded  colleges  for  women, 
men  and  women  have  worked  together  in  secur- 
ing for  woman  every  facility  and  opportunity  for 
education  of  the  highest  grade ;  bat  the  "  bar- 
rier of  sex "  is  not  broken  down  in  education. 
But  few  of  the  older  colleges  for  men  admit 
women,  and  those  few,  so  far  as  I  have  learned 
from  conversation  with  members  of  their  faculties, 
speak  of  the  arrangement  as  an  experiment,  and 
give  the  need  for  economy,  combined  with  a  de- 
sire to  assist  women,  as  a  reason  for  making  that 

experiment.     Meantime   the   knocking  at  men's 
222 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.      223 

literary  portals  by  Suffrage  advocates  has  gone 
on  as  vigorously  as  if  women  could  obtain  educa- 
tion in  no  other  way. 

In  the  first  Suffrage  convention  ever  held  in 
Massachusetts  these  two  resolutions  were  adopted : 
"  That  political  rights  acknowledge  no  sex,  and 
therefore  the  word  '  male '  should  be  stricken 
from  every  State  constitution  ;  "  and  "  That  every 
effort  to  educate  woman,  until  you  accord  to  her 
her  rights,  and  arouse  her  conscience  by  the 
weight  of  her  responsibilities,  is  futile,  and  a 
waste  of  labor." 

The  State  in  which  these  sentiments  were 
uttered  abounded  in  fine  schools  for  girls,  among 
which  were  Mount  Holyoke  and  Wheaton  semi- 
naries. 

A  rapid  survey  of  some  of  the  educational  con- 
ditions that  led  to  the  state  of  things  existing 
when  Suffrage  associations  were  formed,  will  be 
in  place.  Learning  seemed  incompatible  with 
worship  early  in  the  Christian  era.  The  faith  that 
worked  by  love  was  "  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling- 
block,  and  to  the  Greeks  foolishness."  That 
great  battle  between  the  felt  and  the  compre- 
hended, which  in  this  era  we  have  named  the 
conflict  between  science  and  religion,  was  decided 
in  the  mind  of  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  when 
he  wrote :  "  We  know  in  part,  and  we  prophesy 
in  part ;  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  that 
which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away."  He  re- 
called the  accusation,  "  Thou  art  beside  thyself, 


224  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

much  learning  hath  made  thee  mad,"  and  he  hast- 
ened to  assure  the  unlettered  fishermen  and  the 
simple  and  devout  women  who  were  followers  of 
Christ,  that  "  all  knowledge  "  was  naught  if  they 
had  not  love ;  that  even  faith  was  vain  if  it  led 
to  the  rejection  of  the  diviner  wisdom  that  a  little 
child  could  understand. 

The  great  learning  of  Augustine  and  the  Fathers 
brought  into  the  Church  pagan  speculations  of 
God  and  morality,  as  well  as  pagan  knowledge 
in  art,  science,  and  literature.  The  Church  be- 
came corrupted,  and  a  great  outcry  was  made 
against  the  learning  itself,  which  was  falsely  sup- 
posed to  be  the  cause  of  the  degeneration  of 
faith.  Symonds  says  that  during  the  Dark  Ages 
that  followed  upon  this  first  battle  between  faith 
and  sight,  the  meaning  of  Latin  words  derived 
from  the  Greek  was  lost;  that  Homer  and 
Yirgil  were  believed  to  be  contemporaries,  and 
"  Orestes  Tragedia "  was  supposed  to  be  the 
name  of  an  author.  Milman  says  that  "  at  the 
Council  of  Florence  in  1438,  the  Pope  of  Home 
and  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  being  igno- 
rant, the  one  of  Greek,  and  the  other  of  Latin, 
discoursed  through  an  interpreter."  It  was  near 
the  time  of  the  Kef  ormation  that  a  German  monk 
announced  in  his  convent  that  "  a  new  language, 
called  Greek,  had  been  invented,  and  a  book  had 
been  written  in  it,  called  the  New  Testament." 
"  Beware  of  it,"  he  added,  "  It  is  full  of  daggers 
and  poison." 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.      225 

But  the  tradition  of  the  love  that  book  revealed 
had  crept  into  the  heart  of  the  world,  and  now 
awoke.  Through  what  struggles  the  "  spirit  of 
all  truth  "  promised  by  Christ  was  leading,  and 
would  lead  the  world,  the  history  of  civilization 
can  tell.  "Women  shared  in  some  degree  the  out- 
ward benefits  of  the  Revival  of  Learning.  They 
became  in  not  a  few  instances  Doctors  of  Law 
and  professors  of  the  great  universities  that  sprang 
up,  as  well  as  teachers,  transcribers,  and  illumi- 
nators in  the  great  nunneries.  I  could  give  a 
long  and  honorable  list  of  names  of  woman 
writers  and  artists,  in  many  lands,  from  Mediaeval 
to  modern  times ;  and  one  of  the  interesting 
things  revealed  by  such  a  record  would  be  the 
number  who  were  working  with,  or  were  directly 
inspired  and  helped  by,  a  father  or  a  brother. 
The  Court  contained  some  women  who,  like  Lady 
Jane  Grey,  upheld  the  model  of  purity  while 
acquiring  the  learning  that  naturally  accom- 
panied wealth.  But  elegant  letters  had  again 
become  the  associate  of  moral  and  religious  cor- 
ruption in  the  courts,  and  the  "  ignorance  of 
preaching  "  arose  to  combat  it,  in  Cromwell,  the 
Roundheads,  the  Dissenters,  the  Covenanters. 

Yet  sound  learning  was  not  to  die  that  Chris- 
tian truth  might  live.  Of  the  band  of  Pilgrims 
and  Puritans  that  came  first  to  our  shores,  about 
one  in  thirty  was  college-bred.  While  subordinat- 
ing book-knowledge  to  piety,  they  had  learned 
scarcely  less  the  dangers  of  ignorance.  Their 
15 


226  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

first  college  was  founded  because  of  "  the  dread 
of  having  an  illiterate  ministry  to  the  churches 
when  our  ministers  shall  lie  in  dust."  Charles 
Francis  Adams  says,  in  regard  to  the  establish- 
ment of  Harvard  College  :  "  The  records  of  Har- 
vard University  show  that,  of  all  the  presiding 
officers  during  the  century  and  a  half  of  colonial 
days,  but  two  were  laymen,  and  not  ministers  of 
the  prevailing  denomination."  He  further  says 
that  "  of  all  who  in  early  times  availed  themselves 
of  such  advantages  as  this  institution  could  offer, 
nearly  half  the  number  did  so  for  the  sake  of 
devoting  themselves  to  the  gospel.  The  prevail- 
ing notion  of  the  purpose  of  education  was  at- 
tended with  one  remarkable  consequence — the 
cultivation  of  the  female  mind  was  regarded  with 
utter  indifference." 

It  was  attended  with  still  another  remarkable 
consequence,  the  effect  of  which  is  felt  up  to  this 
hour.  Only  men  who  were  fitted  for  a  profession 
were  given  a  college  education.  It  is  well  within 
my  memory  when  it  began  to  be  seriously  said : 
"  A  college  education  is  good  for  a  boy,  whether 
he  intends  to  follow  a  profession  or  not ;  it  will 
make  him  a  better  business  man,  or  even  a  better 
farmer."  The  country  girl  is  now,  as  a  rule,  better 
educated  than  her  brother.  It  also  happened  in 
those  earlier  days,  that  the  artist  and  the  musician 
were  expected  to  attain  knowledge  by  intuition, 
save  in  technical  branches. 

The  minister  was,  almost  of   necessity,  like  a 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     227 

magistrate  in  these  semi-religious  colonies.  The 
fact  of  the  breaking  up  into  various  sects,  which 
we  sometimes  incline  to  look  upon  with  regret  as 
defeating  Christian  unity,  really  saved  the  essen- 
tials of  that  unity  by  preventing  the  clerical  mag- 
istrate from  establishing  a  church  resting  upon 
state  authority.  It  was  obligatory  that  the  civil 
rulers  should  be  learned,  even  at  the  expense  of 
those  who  carried  on  the  business  and  the  home. 

During  the  first  two  hundred  years  of  our 
existence  it  would  have  been  almost  absurd  to  ex- 
pect that  women  would  be  extensively  educated 
outside  the  home.  The  country  was  poor,  and 
struggling  with  new  conditions,  and  great  financial 
crises  swept  over  it.  There  were  wars  and  rumors 
of  wars.  Until  after  1812-15  American  independ- 
ence was  not  an  assured  fact.  Whatever  may  be 
said  of  the  present,  woman's  place  in  America 
then  was  in  the  home,  and  nobly  did  she  fill  that 
place.  That  she  had  not  been  wholly  uninstructed 
in  even  elegant  learning,  is  evidenced  by  the  share 
she  took  in  literature  and  in  the  discussion  of 
religious  and  public  matters,  and  in  such  personal 
records  as  that  of  Elder  Faunce,  who  eulogized 
Alice  South  worth  Bradford  for  "  her  exertions  in 
promoting  the  literary  improvement  and  the  de- 
portment of  the  rising  generation."  Dame  schools 
were  early  established  for  girls,  and  here  were 
often  found  the  sons  of  the  farmer  and  the  me- 
chanic. These  were  established  in  Massachusetts 
in  1635.  Late  in  1700,  girls  were  admitted 


228  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

through  the  summer  to  "  Latin  schools "  where 
boys  were  taught  in  winter,  and  in  1789  women 
began  to  be  associated  with  men  as  teachers.  In 
1771  Connecticut  founded  a  system  of  free  schools 
in  which  boys  and  girls  were  taught.  In  1794 
the  Moravians  founded  a  school  for  girls  at  Beth- 
lehem, Pennsylvania.  Here  were  educated  the 
sisters  of  Peter  Cooper,  the  mother  of  President 
Arthur,  and  many  women  who  became  exponents 
of  culture. 

New  England  began  before  this  to  have  fine 
private  schools  for  girls,  but  no  great  step  was 
taken  until  Miss  Hart  (afterward  Mrs.  Willard) 
had  become  so  successful  Avith  her  academy  teach- 
ing in  her  native  town  of  Berlin,  Connecticut,  and 
in  Hartford,  that  three  States  simultaneously  in- 
vited her  to  establish  schools  within  their  borders. 
She  went  to  Massachusetts,  but  afterward,  at  the 
solicitation  of  Governor  Clinton,  of  New  York, 
she  removed  her  school  to  Troy,  in  1821.  It  was 
a  new  departure,  and  there  was  ignorant  prejudice 
to  overcome.  Governor  Clinton,  in  an  appeal  to 
the  legislature  for  aid,  said :  "  I  trust  you  will  not 
be  deterred  by  commonplace  ridicule  from  ex- 
tending your  munificence  to  this  meritorious  in- 
stitution." They  were  not  deterred.  An  act  was 
passed  for  the  incorporation  of  the  proposed  in- 
stitute, and  another  which  gave  to  female  acade- 
mies a  share  of  the  literary  fund.  The  citizens  of 
Troy  contributed  liberally,  and  the  success  of  an 
effort  in  woman's  high  education  was  assured. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     229 

As  early  as  1697  the  Penn  Charter  School  was 
founded,  and  it  has  lived  until  to-day.  Provision 
was  made  "  at  the  cost  of  the  people  called 
Quakers,"  for  "  all  children  and  servants,  male  and 
female,  the  rich  to  be  instructed  at  reasonable 
rates,  the  poor  to  be  maintained  and  schooled  for 
nothing."  They  also  provided  for  "  instruction 
for  both  sexes  in  reading,  writing,  work,  lan- 
guages, arts  and  sciences."  The  boys  and  girls 
have  been  taught  separately,  the  girls'  school  be- 
ing much  behind  the  boys',  neither  Latin  nor  other 
ancient  language  forming  a  part  of  their  curricu- 
lum. Friends  are  just  beginning  to  discuss  giving 
higher  education  to  girls.  This  is  a  fact  espe- 
cially significant  in  our  discussion,  because  it  has 
always  been  claimed  that  the  Quaker  doctrine 
that  "  souls  have  no  sex  "  led  them  to  place  woman 
on  an  "  equality  "  with  man  before  other  sects  had 
thought  of  allowing  that  they  were  equals.  Lu- 
cretia  Mott,  Susan  Anthony,  Abby  Kelley,  and  a 
great  body  of  the  women  who  adopted  the  resolu- 
tion that  set  forth  the  uselessness  of  educating 
woman  until  she  could  vote,  and  who  clamored 
for  her  entrance  to  men's  institutions,  were  all 
of  this  sect  that  has  kept  its  women  generally 
far  behind  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 

In  1845  Mrs.  Willard  was  invited  to  address  the 
Teachers'  Convention  that  met  in  Syracuse.  She 
prepared  a  paper  in  which  she  set  forth  the  idea 
that,  "  women,  now  sufficiently  educated,  should 
be  employed  and  furnished  by  the  men  as  com- 


230  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

mittees,  charged  with  the  minute  cares  and  super- 
vision of  the  public  schools,"  but  declined  the 
honor  tendered  her  of  delivering  it  in  person. 
Sixty  gentlemen  from  the  convention  visited  her 
at  the  hotel,  and,  at  their  earnest  request,  she  read 
the  essay,  which  met  with  their  emphatic  approval 
of  the  plan  she  proposed.  The  employment  of 
women  in  the  common  schools,  and  the  system  of 
normal  schools,  were  projected  by  her. 

A  Teachers'  Convention  was  held  in  Rochester 
in  1852.  Miss  Anthony,  though  a  teacher,  was 
not  in  attendance  upon  it,  but  she  records  that  she 
went  in  and  listened  for  a  few  hours  to  a  discus- 
sion of  the  causes  that  led  to  their  profession  be- 
ing held  in  less  esteem  than  those  of  the  doctor, 
lawyer,  and  minister.  In  her  judgment,  the  ker- 
nel of  the  matter  was  not  alluded  to,  so  she  arose 
and  said :  "  Mr.  President."  She  records  that  "  at 
length  President  Davies  stepped  to  the  front  and 
said  in  a  tremulous,  mocking  tone,  "  What  will 
the  lady  have  ? "  "I  wish,  sir,"  she  said,  "  to  speak 
to  the  question."  "  "What  is  the  pleasure  of  the 
convention  ? "  asked  Mr.  Davies.  A  gentleman 
moved  that  she  be  heard ;  another  seconded  the 
motion ;  whereupon,  she  records,  "  a  discussion, 
pro  and  con,  followed,  lasting  full  half  an  hour, 
when  a  vote  was  taken  of  the  men  only,  and  per- 
mission was  granted  by  a  small  majority."  She 
adds  that  it  was  lucky  for  her  that  the  thousand 
women  crowding  that  hall  could  not  vote  on  the 
question,  for  they  would  have  given  a  solid  "  No." 


WOMAN  S UFFEA GE  AND  ED  UCA  TION.     231 

The  president  then  announced  "The  lady  can 
speak."  "  It  seems  to  me,  gentlemen,"  said  she, 
"  that  none  of  you  quite  comprehend  the  cause  of 
the  disrespect  of  which  you  complain.  Do  you 
not  see  that,  so  long  as  society  says  a  woman  is 
incompetent  to  be  a  lawyer,  minister,  or  doctor, 
but  has  ample  ability  to  be  a  teacher,  every  man 
of  you  who  chooses  this  profession  tacitly  acknowl- 
edges that  he  has  no  more  brains  than  a  woman  ? 
"Would  you  exalt  your  profession,  exalt  those  who 
labor  with  you.  Would  you  make  it  more  lucra- 
tive, increase  the  salaries  of  the  women  engaged 
in  the  noble  work  of  educating  our  future  Presi- 
dents, Senators,  and  Congressmen." 

Several  thoughts  arise  in  regard  to  this  scene, 
which  was  so  strongly  in  contrast  with  the  con- 
duct of  Mrs.  Willard  or  any  of  the  great  educa- 
tors. Miss  Anthony  gave  no  reason  for  her  be- 
lief that  the  entrance  of  woman  upon  the  other 
professions  would  raise  either  the  status  or  the 
wages  of  those  engaged  in  the  teacher's  profession, 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  have  not  done  so.  It 
was  not  the  society  that  cast  scorn  at  woman's 
"lack  of  brains"  which  assisted  to  remove  the 
natural  prejudice  against  her  assuming  duties  that 
had  been  deemed  unsuited  to  her  physique  and 
her  necessary  work. 

Meantime,  one  year  before  the  Rochester  meet- 
ing was  held,  the  first  college  for  women  had 
been  chartered  at  Auburn,  New  York,  under  the 
name  of  "  Auburn  Female  University."  In  1853 


232  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

it  was  transferred  to  Elmira,  and  it  was  formally 
opened  in  1855.  It  was  placed  under  the  care  of 
the  Congregational  Church,  but  its  charter  re- 
quired that  it  should  have  representative  trustees 
from  five  other  denominations.  Its  course  of 
study  for  the  degree  of  A.  B.  was  essentially  the 
same  that  was  then  pursued  in  the  men's  colleges 
of  the  State.  It  was  expected  to  rely  upon  en- 
dowment, which  put  woman's  education  upon  a 
new  and  more  secure  footing. 

Suffrage  leaders  lose  no  opportunity  to  repre- 
sent the  Church  as  an  enemy  to  woman's  advance- 
ment. Nothing  can  be  further  from  the  truth ; 
and  in  striking  evidence  stand  the  colleges,  which, 
while  unsectarian  in  spirit  and  in  method,  have 
been  established  and  cared  for  by  special  religious 
denominations.  Dr.  Jacobi,  in  her  book  "  Common 
Sense,"  takes  up  the  tale  and  says  :  "  The  Mount 
Holyoke  Seminary,  the  immediate  successor  of 
that  at  Troy,  was  opened  in  1837  by  Miss  Lyon, 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  clergy."  Many 
besides  the  clergy  were  opposed  to  the  plan  for 
which  Miss  Lyon  was  endeavoring  to  raise  money. 
Her  idea  that  the  entire  domestic  work  of  the 
establishment  could  be  done  by  pupils  and 
teachers,  was  thought  unwise  and  hopeless.  In 
that  noble  school,  where  thousands  of  women 
have  been  educated,  a  great  number  have  become 
missionaries.  When  a  Suffrage  convention  in 
session  in  Worcester  wrote  to  Miss  Lyon,  asking 
her  to  interest  herself  in  the  wrongs  of  her  sex, 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     233 

she  answered, "  I  cannot  leave  my  work."  Neither 
was  Yassar  College  founded  from  any  impulse  or 
suggestion  of  Suffrage  agitators,  but  in  a  spirit 
exactly  the  opposite.  The  real  impetus  to  its 
founding  came  from  Milo  Parker  Jewett,  who 
was  born  in  Yermont  in  1808,  and  was  graduated 
at  Dartmouth  College  and  at  Andover  Theologi- 
cal Seminary.  He  was  active  in  the  formation 
of  the  common-school  system  of  Ohio,  and  in  1839 
he  founded  The  Judson  Female  Institute  in  Marion, 
Alabama.  He  established  a  seminary  for  girls  in 
Poughkeepsie  in  1855.  He  had  studied  law,  and 
became  the  friend  and  legal  adviser  of  Matthew 
Yassar,  who,  being  unmarried,  was  casting  about 
for  a  method  of  disposing  of  his  fortune.  He 
suggested  to  Mr.  Yassar  an  endowed  college  for 
women,  and  visited  the  universities  and  libraries 
of  Europe  with  a  plan  of  organization  in  mind. 
Mr.  Yassar  gladly  accepted  this  great  enlarge- 
ment upon  an  idea  that  had  lain  dormant  in  his 
own  mind,  and  Yassar  College  was  founded,  Dr. 
Jewett  becoming  its  first  president  in  1862. 

I  may  claim  to  have  been  beside  the  cradle  of 
Yassar  College;  for  when  Dr.  Jewett  resigned 
the  presidency  in  1864,  my  father  named  the 
successor  who  was  appointed,  Dr.  John  H.  Kay- 
mond,  his  life-long  friend.  Dr.  Kaymond  came 
to  Koch  ester  to  discuss  a  plan  of  work,  and,  know- 
ing my  father's  interest,  I  was  on  tiptoe  to  hear 
about  the  new  college.  At  my  earnest  solicita- 
tion, he  and  Dr.  Raymond  and  Prest.  Anderson 


234  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

permitted  me  to  be  present  at  their  discussions. 
I  learned  to  comprehend  the  value  of  womanliness 
to  the  world  by  the  estimate  that  those  noble 
educators  put  upon  it.  It  was  evident  that  they 
were  arranging  for  those  for  whose  minds  they 
felt  respect.  They  made  no  foolish  remarks 
about  the  superiority,  inferiority,  or  equality  of 
the  sexes,  and  had  no  contempt  to  throw  upon 
the  old  education  of  tutor,  and  library,  and  young 
ladies'  seminary.  They  did  not  sneer  at  the 
u  female  mind,"  but  they  did  talk  of  the  feminine 
mind  as  of  something  .as  distinct  in  its  essence 
from  the  masculine  mind  as  the  feminine  form 
is  distinct  in  its  outlines.  To  "preserve  wo- 
manliness "  was  a  task  they  felt  they  must  fulfil, 
or  the  women  for  whose  good  they  labored  would 
one  day  call  them  to  account.  The  dictum  so  fre- 
quently in  the  mouths  of  Suffrage  leaders,  "  There 
is  no  sex  in  brain,"  would  have  been  abhorrent 
to  them.  In  their  view,  there  was  as  much  sex  in 
brain  as  in  hand ;  and  the  education  that  did  not, 
through  cultivation,  emphasize  that  fact,  would 
be  a  lower  and  not  a  higher  product.  They 
laid  that  intellectual  corner-stone  in  love,  and  in 
the  faith  that  the  same  womanly  spirit  which, 
when  there  was  not  college  education  enough  to 
go  round,  had  said,  "  Give  it  to  the  boys,  because 
their  work  must  be  public,"  would  find,  through 
the  glad  return  the  boys  were  making,  a  way  to 
teach  the  world  still  higher  lessons  of  womanly 
character  and  influence.  Since  that  time,  college 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     235 

after  college  has  arisen  without  a  dream  on  the 
part  of  the  founders,  faculties,  or  students  that 
"  every  effort  to  educate  woman,  until  you  accord 
to  her  the  right  to  vote,  is  futile  and  a  waste  of 
labor,"  and  it  may  well  be  that  the  women  edu- 
cated in  these  colleges  will  decide  that,  because 
political  rights  do  acknowledge  sex,  therefore  the 
word  "male"  should  not  be  stricken  from  any 
State  constitution. 

Before  the  committee  of  the  New  York  State 
Constitutional  Convention  in  1894,  Mr.  Edward 
Lauterbach,  who  was  arguing  in  favor  of  woman 
suffrage,  said  :  "  It  was  only  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Willard  School  at  Troy,  only  after 
its  noble  founder,  believing  that  women  and  men 
were  formed  in  the  same  mould,  successfully 
tried  the  experiment  of  educating  women  in  the 
higher  branches,  that  steps  for  higher  education 
became  generally  taken."  If  Mr.  Lauterbach 
imagines  that  Mrs.  Willard  was  in  the  most  dis- 
tant way  an  advocate  of  woman's  doing  the  same 
work  as  man  in  the  same  way,  he  is  unfamiliar 
with  her  life  and  work.  Mrs.  Willard,  in  setting 
forth  her  ideal  of  woman's  education,  said  "  Edu- 
cation should  be  adapted  to  female  character  and 
duties.  To  do  this  would  raise  the  character  of 
man.  .  .  .  Why  may  not  housewifery  be  reduced 
to  a  system  as  well  as  the  other  arts  ?  If  women 
were  properly  fitted  for  instruction,  they  would 
be  likely  to  teach  children  better  than  the  other 
sex ;  they  could  afford  to  do  it  cheaper ;  and  men 


236  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

might  be  at  liberty  to  add  to  the  wealth  of  the 
nation  by  any  of  the  thousand  occupations  from 
which  women  are  necessarily  debarred."  Old- 
fashioned  wisdom,  but  choicely  good.  Mr.  Lau- 
terbach  further  said  :  "  What  wonder  that,  being 
so  fully  equipped  in  every  mental  attribute,  in 
every  intellectual  qualification,  they  will  be  able 
not  only  to  cast  a  vote  but  to  take  practical  part 
in  the  administration  of  the  government  ?  " 

A  female  Solon  would  be  a  woman  still,  and 
in  a  democracy  the  intellectual  is  not  the  only 
qualification  needed.  This  certainly  was  the 
belief  of  Mrs.  Willard,  and  in  1868,  when  the 
Suffrage  leaders  were  holding  a  convention  in 
Washington,  and  were  urging  that  Congress 
should  pass  a  sixteenth  amendment  admitting 
women  to  suffrage,  Almira  Lincoln  Phelps,  sister 
of  Mrs.  Willard,  herself  an  educator  and  an 
author  of  text-books,  wrote  to  Isabella  Beecher 
Hooker :  "  Hoping  you  will  receive  kindly  what 
I  am  about  to  write,  I  will  proceed  without 
apologies.  I  have  confidence  in  your  nobleness 
of  soul,  and  that  you  know  enough  of  me  to 
believe  in  my  devotion  to  the  best  interests  of 
woman.  I  can  scarcely  realize  that  you  are  giving 
your  name  and  influence  to  a  cause  which,  with 
some  good,  but,  as  I  think,  misguided  women, 
numbers  among  its  advocates  others  Avith  loose 
morals.  ...  If  we  could  with  propriety  petition 
the  Almighty  to  change  the  condition  of  the 
sexes,  and  let  men  take  a  turn  in  bearing  chil- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     237 

dreu  and  in  suffering  the  physical  ailments  pecul- 
iar to  women,  which  render  them  unfit  for  certain 
positions  and  business,  why,  in  this  case,  if  we 
really  wish  to  be  men,  and  thought  God  would 
change  the  established  order,  we  might  make  our 
petition  ;  but  why  ask  Congress  to  make  us  men  ? 
Circumstances  drew  me  from  the  quiet  domestic 
life  while  I  was  yet  young,  but  success  in 
labors  which  involved  publicity,  and  which  may 
have  been  of  advantage  to  society,  was  never 
considered  as  an  equivalent  to  my  own  heart 
for  such  a  loss  of  retirement.  In  the  name  of  my 
sainted  sister,  Emma  Willard,  and  of  my  friend 
Lydia  Sigourney,  and,  I  think  I  might  say,  in  the 
name  of  the  women  of  the  past  generation  who 
have  been  prominent  as  writers  and  educators 
(the  exception  may  be  made  of  Mary  Wollstone- 
craft,  Frances  Wright,  and  a  few  licentious 
French  writers)  in  our  own  country  and  in  Europe, 
let  me  urge  the  high-souled  and  honorable  of  our 
sex  to  turn  their  energies  into  that  channel  which 
will  enable  them  to  act  for  the  true  interests  of 
their  sex." 

In  a  woman's  club,  last  winter,  a  New  York 
teacher,  Miss  Helen  Dawes  Brown,  a  graduate  of 
Yassar  College,  founder  of  the  Woman's  Univer- 
sity Club  and  also  one  of  the  founders  of  Bar- 
nard College,  in  a  speech  said  in  part :  "  The 
young  girl  who  doesn't  dance,  who  doesn't  play 
games,  who  can't  skate  and  can't  row,  is  a  girl  to 
be  pitied.  She  is  losing  a  large  part  of  what 


238  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Chesterfield  calls  the  'joy  and  titivation  of 
youth.'  If  our  young  girl  has  learned  to  be  good, 
teach  her  not  to  disregard  the  externals  of  good- 
ness. Let  our  girls,  in  college  and  out,  learn  to 
be  agreeable.  A  girl's  education  should,  first  of 
all,  be  directed  to  fitting  her  for  the  things  of 
home.  We  talk  of  woman  as  if  the  only  domestic 
relations  were  those  of  wife  and  mother.  Let  us 
not  forget  that  she  is  also  a  granddaughter,  a 
daughter,  a  sister,  an  aunt.  I  should  like  to  see 
her  made  her  best  in  all  these  characters,  before 
she  undertakes  public  duties.  The  best  organiza- 
tion in  the  world  is  the  home.  "Whatever  in  the 
education  of  girls  draws  them  away  from  that,  is 
an  injury  to  civilization." 

At  the  close  of  an  article  in  the  "  Outlook," 
written  by  Elizabeth  Fisher  Kead,  of  Smith 
College,  she  said,  speaking  of  their  last  adaptation 
of  athletics :  "  From  the  beginning,  the  policy  of 
Smith  College  has  been,  not  to  duplicate  the 
means  of  development  offered  in  men's  colleges, 
but  to  provide  courses  and  methods  of  study  that 
should  do  for  women  what  the  men's  courses  did 
for  them.  Emphasis  has  been  put,  not  on  the 
resemblances  between  men  and  women,  but  rather 
on  the  differences.  The  effort  has  not  been  to 
turn  out  new  women,  capable  of  doing  anything 
man  can  do,  from  walking  thirty  miles  to  solving 
the  problems  of  higher  mathematics.  Instead  of 
this,  the  college  has  tried  to  develop  its  students 
along  natural  womanly  lines,  not  along  the  lines 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     2B9 

that  would  naturally  be  followed  in  training 
men." 

This  sounds  strangely  like  Mrs.  Willard,  who 
would  be  the  first  to  rejoice  in  the  new  education 
and  in  the  old  spirit  that  it  can  develop.  Of 
course  Suffrage  claims  to  have  the  same  end  in 
view.  Every  college  woman  must  decide  for  her- 
self where  she  will  stand  on  the  question.  So  far, 
there  never  has  been  any  open  affiliation  between 
the  colleges  and  the  Suffrage  movement.  We 
wait  to  hear  a  final  verdict. 

A  contributor  to  the  Suffrage  department  of 
the  Woman's  Edition  of  the  Rochester  "  Post- 
Express,"  March  26,  1896,  said :  "  Will  Rochester 
give  to  its  daughters  the  same  advantages  as  to 
its  sons,  or  will  it  say  to  the  girls  who  have  no 
money  to  leave  home  and  seek  in  Smith  and 
Wellesley  the  culture  they  cannot  procure  here  : 
*  You  cannot  be  thoroughly  educated ;  you  have 
no  money ;  you  can  have  no  education  ;  sit  and 
spin ;  bake  and  brew — but  don't  bother  about 
higher  education,'  or  will  the  University  of 
Rochester  recognize  the  one  splendid  opportunity 
that  awaits  it,  the  one  last  chance  to  take  its 
proper  place  and  become  all  that  the  highest 
American  standards  demand  for  a  University  ? " 

The  time  has  not  yet  fully  come  when  these  same 
sentimentalists  shall  say  to  the  faculty  and  trus- 
tees of  Yassar,  Wellesley  and  Smith :  "  Will  you 
not  give  to  the  boys  of  Poughkeepsie,  North- 
hampton,  and  Wellesley  the  same  advantages  as 


240  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

to  the  girls  ?  Or  will  you  say  to  them :  '  You 
cannot  be  thoroughly  educated ;  you  have  no 
money  ;  you  can  have  no  education ;  work  in  the 
shop  or  on  the  farm,  but  don't  bother  about 
Tiigher  education.'  "  This  is  Suffrage  logic,  and 
there  is  no  more  reason  why  the  educational  in- 
stitutions in  which  men  study  from  the  age  of 
eighteen  to  twenty-two  should  be  invaded  by 
women  of  that  age,  than  why  women's  institutions 
should  be  invaded  by  men.  Yet  this  would  be 
the  destruction  of  our  women's  colleges.  When 
Miss  Anthony  headed  a  delegation  that  went 
bodily  to  force  co-education  on  Rochester  Uni- 
versity, she  was  told  that  classes  open  to  women 
had  been  connected  with  the  college  for  years. 

The  kind  of  education  best  suited  to  the  idea  of 
Suffrage  is  a  training  in  political  history  and  pres- 
ent political  issues;  but  the  women  who  have 
talked  loudly  and  vaguely  of  the  right  of  suffrage 
for  years  have  been  the  last  to  present  such 
knowledge.  I  have  read  their  "  History,"  attended 
their  conventions,  glanced  at  their  magazines,  but 
never  have  come  upon  the  discussion  of  a  single 
public  issue.  I  think  those  most  familiar  with  it 
will  bear  me  out  if  I  make  the  statement  that 
their  principal  periodical,  "  The  Woman's  Jour- 
nal," edited  by  Mary  A.  Livermore,  Julia  Ward 
Howe,  Mr.  Blackwell,  and  Alice  Stone  Blackwell, 
has  not  contained  any  presentations  of  questions 
of  public  policy  in  the  past  ten  years. 

Those  whose  names  are  signed  to  the  Suffrage 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.      241 

Woman's  Bible,  and  who  are  therefore  respon- 
sible for  that  disgraceful  effusion,  have  little  right 
to  claim  to  be  intelligent  instructors  of  their  sex. 
With  an  ignorance  that  is  monumental,  Frances 
Ellen  Burr  glories  in  the  fact  that  "  the  Revising 
Committee  refer  to  a  woman's  translation  of  the 
Bible  as  their  ultimate  authority  for  the  Greek, 
Latin,  and  Hebrew  text,"  and  they  add  that 
"  Julia  Smith,  this  distinguished  scholar,"  is  the 
only  person,  man  or  woman,  who  ever  made  a 
translation  of  the  Bible  without  help.  They  say : 
"  Wy cliff  made  a  translation  from  the  Yulgate  as- 
sisted by  Nicholas  of  Hereford.  He  was  not  suffici- 
ently f amilar  with  Hebrew  and  Greek  to  translate 
from  those  tongues.  Coverdale's  translation  was 
not  done  alone.  Tyndale,  in  his  translation,  had 
the  assistance  of  Frye,  of  William  Eoye,  and  also 
of  Miles  Coverdale.  Julia  Smith  translated  the 
whole  Bible  absolutely  alone,  without  consultation 
with  any  one  "  !  Again  they  say,  "  King  James 
appointed  fifty-four  men  of  learning  to  translate 
the  Bible.  Seven  of  them  died,  and  forty-seven 
carried  the  work  on.  Compare  this  corps  of 
workers  with  one  little  woman  performing  the 
Herculean  task  without  one  suggestion  or  word 
of  advice  from  mortal  man  "  !  Yes,  compare  it ! 
Uncultured  Julia  Smith,  stirred  by  the  Millerite 
prophecies,  did  the  best  she  could  to  enlighten 
her  own  mind,  and  should  be  honored  for  so 
doing ;  but  what  is  to  be  said  of  the  women  who 

in  this  dav>  in  cool  print,  are  willing  to  show  that 
16 


242  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

they  have  no  comprehension  of  her  grotesque 
errors  or  of  the  difficulties  that  beset  a  real 
scholar  in  his  noble  task  ?  Protest  at  woman's 
educational  deprivation  comes  with  ill-grace  from 
those  who  have  thus  revealed  their  own  lack  of 
knowledge  of  the  oldest  literature  in  the  world, 
the  model  of  poetry  and  prose,  the  guardian  of  the 
purity  of  our  English  speech. 

Educated  women  desire  that  woman  should  do 
all  that  strength  and  time  allow  in  the  care  of  the 
public  schools.  The  school  suffrage  ought  to  be 
a  boon  for  them.  But  it  does  not,  so  far,  look  as 
if  women  could  make  it  so.  The  figures  of  the 
school  vote  of  women  in  Connecticut,  for  three 
years,  occasion  serious  question  whether  the  use 
of  the  ballot  is  the  way  in  which  woman  is  to 
effect  anything.  In  Staten  Island,  ignorance  in 
women  voted  out  education,  and  a  tremendous 
effort  had  to  be  made  to  vote  it  in  again.  The 
number  of  men  who  voted  at  the  last  general 
election  in  Connecticut  was  about  164,000.  The 
women  outnumber  the  men,  but  the  following 
table  represents  the  school  vote  in  the  State  of 
Emma  Willard.  It  certainly  does  not  represent 
the  amount  of  interest  taken  in  education,  nor  in 
the  common  schools : 

COUNTIES.                         1893.  1894.  1895. 

Hartford..- 1293  1186  689 

New  Haven 973  949  570 

New  London 364  373  185 

Fairfield  . ,                                   273  198  126 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     243 

COUNTIES.                         1893.  1894.  1895. 

Windham 176  182  148 

Litchfield 159  85  50 

Middlesex 60  136  101 

Tolland 372  137  37 

This  gives  the  results  from  all  but  three  or  four 
towns  in  the  State.  Aside  from  any  other  con- 
siderations, the  uncertainty  attending  the  vote  of 
an  element  whose  first  call  is  elsewhere  than  at 
the  polls,  is  a  menace  to  the  welfare  of  the  schools 
as  well  as  of  republican  institutions. 

One  of  the  grievances  of  the  Suffrage  leaders 
lay  in  the  fact  that  the  literary  women  of  the 
country  would  express  no  sympathy  with  their 
efforts.  Poets  and  authors  in  general  were  de- 
nounced. Gail  Hamilton,  who  had  the  good  of 
woman  in  her  heart,  who  was  better  informed  on 
public  affairs  than  perhaps  any  woman  in  the 
United  States,  and  whose  trenchant  pen  cut  deep 
and  spared  not,  always  reprobated  the  cause. 
Mrs.  Stowe  stood  aloof,  and  so  did  Catherine 
Beecher,  though  urged  to  the  contrary  course 
by  Henry  "Ward  Beecher  and  Isabella  Beecher 
Hooker.  In  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Cutler,  Catherine 
Beecher  said :  "  I  am  not  opposed  to  women's 
speaking  in  public  to  any  who  are  willing  to  hear, 
nor  am  I  opposed  to  women's  preaching,  sanctioned 
as  it  is  by  a  prophetic  apostle — as  one  of  the  mil- 
lennial results.  Nor  am  I  opposed  to  a  woman's 
earning  her  own  independence  in  any  lawful  call- 
ing, and  wish  many  more  were  open  to  her  which 


244  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

are  now  closed.  Nor  am  I  opposed  to  the  organ- 
ization and  agitation  of  women,  as  women,  to  set 
forth  the  wrongs  suffered  by  great  multitudes  of 
our  sex,  which  are  multiform  and  most  humiliat- 
ing. Nor  am  I  opposed  to  women's  undertaking 
to  govern  boys  and  men — they  always  have,  and 
they  always  will.  Nor  am  I  opposed  to  the  claim 
that  women  have  equal  rights  with  men.  I  rather 
claim  that  they  have  the  sacred  superior  rights 
that  God  and  good  men  accord  to  the  weak  and 
defenceless,  by  which  they  have  the  easiest  work, 
the  most  safe  and  comfortable  places,  and  the 
largest  share  of  all  the  most  agreeable  and  desir- 
able enjoyments  of  this  life.  My  main  objection 
to  the  Woman-Suffrage  organization  is  this,  that 
a  wrong  mode  is  employed  to  gain  a  right  object. 
The  right  object  sought  is,  to  remedy  the  wrongs 
and  relieve  the  sufferings  of  great  multitudes  of 
our  sex  ;  the  wrong  mode  is  that  which  aims  to 
enforce  by  law  instead  of  by  love.  It  is  one 
which  assumes  that  man  is  the  author  and  abettor 
of  all  these  wrongs,  and  that  he  must  be  restrained 
and  regulated  by  constitutions  and  laws,  as  the 
chief  and  most  trustworthy  methods.  I  hold  that 
the  fault  is  as  much,  or  more,  with  women  than 
with  men,  inasmuch  as  we  have  all  the  power  we 
need  to  remedy  the  wrongs  complained  of,  and 
yet  we  do  not  use  it  for  that  end.  It  is  my  deep 
conviction  that  all  reasonable  and  conscientious 
men  of  our  age,  and  especially  of  our  country,  are 
not  only  willing  but  anxious  to  provide  for  the 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     245 

good  of  our  sex.  They  will  gladly  bestow  all  that 
is  just,  reasonable,  and  kind,  whenever  we  unite  in 
asking  in  the  proper  spirit  and  manner.  In  the 
half  a  century  since  I  began  to  work  for  the  edu- 
cation and  relief  of  my  sex,  I  have  succeeded  so 
largely  by  first  convincing  intelligent  and  benevo- 
lent women  that  what  I  aimed  at  was  right  and 
desirable,  and  then  securing  their  influence  with 
their  fathers,  brothers,  and  husbands,  and  always 
with  success.  Why  not  take  the  shorter  course, 
and  ask  to  have  the  men  do  for  us  what  we  might 
do  for  ourselves  if  we  had  the  ballot  ?  Now  if 
women  are  all  made  voters,  it  will  be  their  duty  to 
vote,  and  also  to  qualify  themselves  for  that  duty. 
But  already  women  have  more  than  they  can  do 
well  in  all  that  appropriately  belongs  to  them,  and, 
to  add  the  civil  and  political  duties  of  men,  would 
be  deemed  a  measure  of  injustice  and  oppression 
by  those  who  are  opposed." 

Miss  Beecher,  like  Mrs.  Willard  and  Mrs. 
Phelps,  made  text-books  for  the  use  of  her  own 
seminaries,  and  her  Arithmetic,  and  Mental  and 
Moral  Philosophy,  and  Applied  Theology,  were 
among  the  educational  forces  of  her  day.  It  is 
one  of  the  significant  signs  of  the  times  that  science 
and  education,  as  well  as  philanthropy,  are  oc- 
cupying themselves  just  now  with  childhood  and 
motherhood  and  housewifery.  Mrs.  Willard's 
high  ideal  of  womanliness  is  beginning  to  be  set 
forth  by  the  electric  light  of  modern  thought. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

THE  eighth  count  in  the  Suffrage  indictment 
reads  :  "  lie  allows  her  in  Church,  as  well  as  in 
State,  but  a  subordinate  position,  claiming  Apos- 
tolic authority  for  her  exclusion  from  the  ministry, 
and,  with  some  exceptions,  from  any  public  par- 
ticipation in  the  affairs  of  the  Church." 

More  than  thirty  years  later  than  this,  Mrs. 
Stanton,  Miss  Anthony,  and  Mrs.  Gage  wrote  in 
the  preface  to  their  "  History  of  Woman  Suffrage :" 
"  American  men  may  quiet  their  consciences 
with  the  delusion  that  no  such  injustice  exists  in 
this  country  as  in  Eastern  nations.  Though, 
with  the  general  improvement  in  our  institutions, 
woman's  condition  must  inevitably  have  improved 
also,  yet  the  same  principle  that  degrades  her 
in  Turkey  insults  her  here.  Custom  forbids  a 
woman  there  to  enter  a  mosque,  or  call  the  hour 
for  prayers  ;  here  it  forbids  her  a  voice  in  Church 
councils  or  State  legislatures.  .  .  .  The  Church, 
too,  took  alarm,  knowing  that  with  the  freedom 
and  education  acquired  in  becoming  a  component 
part  of  the  Government,  woman  would  not  only 

outgrow  the  power  of  the  priesthood,  and  religious 
246 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.     247 

superstitions,  but  would  also  invade  the  pulpit, 
interpret  the  Bible  anew  from  her  own  stand- 
point, and  claim  an  equal  voice  in  all  ecclesias- 
tical councils.  With  fierce  warnings  and  denun- 
ciations from  the  pulpit,  and  false  interpretations 
of  Scripture,  women  have  been  intimidated  and 
misled,  and  their  religious  feelings  have  been 
played  upon  for  their  more  complete  subjugation. 
While  the  general  principles  of  the  Bible  are  in 
favor  of  the  most  enlarged  freedom  and  equality 
of  the  race,  isolated  texts  have  been  used  to 
block  the  wheels  of  progress  in  all  periods ;  thus 
bigots  have  defended  capital  punishment,  intem- 
perance, slavery,  polygamy,  and  the  subjection  of 
woman.  The  creeds  of  all  nations  make  obedience 
to  man  the  corner-stone  of  her  religious  character. 
Fortunately,  however,  more  liberal  minds  are 
now  giving  us  higher  and  purer  expositions  of 
the  Scriptures." 

It  is  fifteen  years  since  these  statements  were 
made,  and  we  have  now  the  first  instalment  of 
"  the  Bible  interpreted  anew  from  her  own  stand- 
point," which  presumably  issues,  in  their  view, 
from  more  liberal  minds,  and  is  higher  and  purer 
than  the  old  one.  In  the  Introduction  to  that 
Suffrage  Woman's  Bible  (which  is  as  yet  only  a 
commentary  on  the  Pentateuch),  Mrs.  Stanton 
says:  "From  the  inauguration  of  the  movement 
for  woman's  emancipation  the  Bible  has  been 
used  to  hold  her  in  her '  divinely  appointed  sphere ' 
prescribed  by  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 


i>48  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

The  canon  and  civil  law,  Church  and  State, 
priests  and  legislators,  all  political  parties  and 
religious  denominations,  have  alike  taught  that 
woman  was  made  after  man,  of  man,  and  for 
man, — an  inferior  being,  subject  to  man.  Creeds, 
codes,  Scriptures,  and  statutes  are  all  based  on 
this  idea.  The  fashions,  forms,  ceremonies,  and 
customs  of  society,  church  ordinances,  and  disci- 
pline, all  grow  out  of  this  idea.  ...  So  perverted 
is  the  religious  element  in  her  nature,  that  with 
faith  and  works  she  is  the  chief  support  of  the 
Church  and  Clergy, — the  very  powers  that  make 
her  emancipation  impossible." 

1  know  that  many  believers  in  Suffrage  are  also 
believers  in  the  Bible  and  in  denominational  Chris- 
tianity. Mrs.  Helen  Montgomery  says,  in  the 
"Woman's  edition  of  the  Rochester  "  Post-Express," 
that  one  reason  for  her  favorable  consideration  of 
it  is,  that  "  Two-thirds  of  the  membership  of  the 
Christian  church  cannot  express  their  conviction 
at  the  polls,  since  women  may  not  vote."  "  Much 
of  the  callousness  of  politicians  to  church  opinion," 
she  adds,  "  comes  from  the  knowledge  that  that 
opinion  is  backed  by  few  votes."  I  also  know 
that  many  of  those  who  disbelieve  in  Suffrage 
may  also  disbelieve  in  the  Bible,  the  clergy,  and 
the  Church.  I  further  recognize  the  fact  that  the 
church  and  religion  are  not  synonymous  terms. 
I  have  no  attacks  to  make,  and  no  special  plead- 
ing to  do.  I  am  discussing  the  question  of 
Suffrage  as  I  find  it  in  the  writing  and  the  speech 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.    249 

of  its  proposers  and  its  present  conspicuous  advo- 
cates. Each  American  woman  has  this  mighty 
problem  before  her,  and  she  must  settle  it  accord- 
ing to  her  own  conscience  and  best  enlightenment. 

Mrs.  Stanton  admits  with  shame  that  woman 
is  one  of  the  chief  supporters  of  the  Church. 
Mrs.  Montgomery  says  with  delight  that  she 
forms  two-thirds  of  the  Christian  Church.  Indi- 
vidual members  of  Suffrage  organizations  may 
be  in  sympathy  with  Christianity,  or  against  it ; 
but  the  movement  itself  cannot  be  on  both  sides 
of  this  question.  What  is  its  record  ?  I  will  en- 
deavor to  trace  it,  and  will  then,  as  best  I  may, 
attempt  to  say  a  few  words  upon  the  general 
subject  of  the  "  subordination  of  woman." 

In  the  course  of  the  first  clause  of  their  accu- 
sation, the  women  say :  "  Claiming  Apostolic 
authority  for  her  exclusion  from  the  ministry." 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  Paul  frequently  alludes  to 
the  teaching  and  ministrations  of  women,  it  has 
come  to  be  generally  thought  among  Christian 
scholars,  I  believe,  that  this  injunction  that  they 
"  keep  silence  in  the  churches,"  referred  to  the 
propriety  of  their  conduct  in  the  moral, — or  rather 
the  immoral, — atmosphere  by  which  the  Church 
at  Corinth  was  surrounded.  This  seems  reason- 
able, because  it  may  be  observed  that,  in  writing 
to  Timothy,  who  was  in  Macedonia,  to  Titus,  who 
was  in  Crete,  and  to  the  Church  at  Ephesus, 
while  he  repeats  his  general  injunctions  of 
woman's  submission  to  man,  and  especially  to  her 


250  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

husband,  he  says  nothing  relative  to  her  public 
work  in  the  church.  But  if  Paul  had  been 
writing  to  the  church  in  New  England,  in  1634, 
and  in  New  York  in  1774,  his  injunction  to  silence 
might  well  have  been  applied  to  the  first  woman 
preachers  to  whom  Americans  were  called  upon 
to  listen.  When  Anne  Hutchinson,  in  Boston, 
preached  that  "the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
dwelleth  perfectly  in  every  believer,  and  the  in- 
ward revelations  of  her  own  spirit,  and  the  con- 
scious judgment  of  her  own  mind  are  of  authority 
paramount  to  any  word  of  God,"  she  shook  the 
young  colony  to  its  foundation,  as  no  man  had 
shaken  it.  The  militia  that  had  been  ordered  to 
the  Pequot  war  refused  to  march,  because  she 
had  proclaimed  their  chaplain  to  be  "  under  a 
covenant  of  works,  and  not  under  a  covenant  of 
grace."  Her  influence,  and  not  her  ballot,  if  she 
had  one,  threatened  anarchy  in  the  state,  and 
caused  a  schism  in  the  church  such  as  might 
have  crushed  out  the  life  from  the  infant  body  to 
which  Paul  was  writing. 

•  In  1774  appeared  the  next  public  woman 
preacher,  Ann  Lee.  She  proclaimed  that  God 
was  revealed  a  dual  being,  male  and  female,  to 
the  Jews ;  that  Jesus  revealed  to  the  world  God 
as  a  Father ;  and  that  she, — Ann  Lee,  "  Mother 
Ann," — was  God's  revelation  of  the  Mother,  "  the 
bearing  spirit  of  the  creation  of  God."  She 
founded  the  sect  of  Shakers,  whose  main  articles 
of  belief,  besides  the  one  above  mentioned,  were  : 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.    251 

community  of  goods ;  non-resistance  to  force,  even 
in  self-defence;  the  sinfulness  of  all  human  au- 
thority, and  consequently  the  sinfulness  of  partici- 
pation in  any  form  of  government ;  absolute 
separation  of  the  sexes,  and  consequently  no  mar- 
riage institution.  Her  mission  as  "  the  Christ  of 
the  Second  Appearing,"  began  with  her  announce- 
ment of  God's  wrath  upon  all  marriage,  and 
the  public  renunciation  of  her  own.  In  New 
York,  as  in  New  England,  her  proclamations 
against  government  and  war  tended  directly  to 
anarchy,  and  in  the  momentous  year  1776  she 
was  for  that  reason  imprisoned  in  Poughkeepsie, 
whence  she  was  released  by  Governor  Clinton's 
pardon. 

The  next  pulpitless  preacher,  in  the  succession 
we  are  considering,  appeared  in  this  country  in 
1828.  Her  name  was  Frances  "Wright.  She  was 
a  person  of  totally  different  mind  and  methods 
from  Anne  Hutchinson  and  Ann  Lee.  She  was 
professedly  an  enemy  of  religion.  Anne  Hutchin- 
son attacked  church  and  state  in  the  name  of 
Christian  human  perfection.  Ann  Lee  attacked 
church  and  state  in  the  name  of  woman ;  she 
preached  communism  and  separation  of  the  sexes 
in  the  name  of  Christ ;  she  taught  the  abolition  of 
marriage.  Frances  Wright  preached  communism 
and  sex  license  in  the  name  of  irreligion.  In 
opening  the  columns  of  the  "  Free  Inquirer  "  to 
discussion,  in  New  York,  in  1828,  she  said  :  "Re- 
ligion is  true — and  in  that  case  the  conviction  of 


252  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

its  truth  should  dictate  every  human  word  and 
govern  every  sublunary  action, — or  it  is  a  decep- 
tion. If  it  is  a  deception,  it  is  not  useless  only,  it 
is  mischievous  ;  it  is  mischievous  by  its  idle  ter- 
rors ;  it  is  mischievous  by  its  false  morality ;  it  is 
mischievous  by  its  hypocrisy ;  by  its  fanaticism ; 
by  its  dogmatism ;  by  its  threats  ;  by  its  hopes ; 
by  its  promises  ;  and  last,  though  not  least,  by  its 
waste  of  public  time  and  public  money."  "While 
deciding  that  it  was  a  deception,  she  revealed 
the  evil  results  to  which  abandonment  of  all  faith 
can  lead  a  woman  with  a  clever  brain  and  a  fear- 
less tongue.  She  constantly  denounced  religion 
as  the  source  of  all  injustice  and  bigotry  and  of 
the  "  enslavement  of  women." 

The  editors  of  the  "  Suffrage  History"  say :  "  As 
early  as  1828  the  standard  of  the  Christian  party 
in  politics  was  openly  unfurled.  Frances  Wright 
had  long  been  aware  of  its  insidious  efforts,  and 
its  reliance  upon  women  for  its  support.  Ignorant, 
superstitious,  devout,  woman's  general  lack  of 
education  made  her  a  fitting  instrument  for  the 
work  of  thus  undermining  the  republic.  Having 
deprived  her  of  her  just  rights,  the  country  was 
now  to  find  in  woman  its  most  dangerous  foe. 
Frances  "Wright  lectured  that  winter  in  the  large 
cities  of  the  western  and  middle  States,  striving  to 
rouse  the  nation  to  the  new  danger  which  threat- 
ened it.  The  clergy  at  once  became  her  most 
bitter  opponents.  The  cry  of '  infidel '  was  started 
on  every  side,  though  her  work  was  of  vital  im- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHUECH.     258 

portance  to  the  country  and  undertaken  from  the 
purest  philanthropy." 

It  was  high  time  that  a  Christian  and  a  non- 
Christian  party  in  politics  should  unfurl  a  banner ; 
for  to  the  dauntless  courage  of  the  land  from 
which  she  came — Scotland — she  added  the  pol- 
ished manner  of  the  country  from  which  came 
D'Arusmont,  the  husband  from  whom  she  was 
soon  parted.  To  the  zeal  of  the  Covenanter,  the 
moral  blackness  of  the  infidel,  and  the  political 
creed  of  the  Commune,  she  united  the  doctrine  c2 
Free  Love.  As  she  set  these  forth  with  blandish- 
ments of  speech  and  manner, the  country  did  indeed 
find  in  this  woman  a  most  dangerous  foe.  "When 
"  Fanny  Wright  societies "  sprang  up  in  New 
York  and  the  West,  horror  might  well  be  felt  by 
lovers  of  the  Republic. 

Lucretia  Mott  was  the  next  public  preacher  in 
this  succession.  Pure  in  personal  character,  lofty 
in  spirit,  winning  in  address,  she  took  for  her 
motto,  "  Truth  for  Authority,  not  Authority  for 
Truth."  As  authority  for  that  truth,  she  took 
Elias  Hicks. 

Dr.  Jacobi,  in  "  Common  Sense,"  says :  "  The 
abolitionists  were  declared  to  have  set  aside  the 
laws  of  God  when  they  allowed  women  to  speak 
in  public :  and,  by  a  pastoral  letter,  the  Congrega- 
tional churches  of  Massachusetts  were  directed  to 
defend  themselves  against  heresy,  by  closing  their 
doors  to  the  innovators.  The  Methodists  de- 
nounced the  Garrisonian  societies  as  no-govern- 


254  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

ment,  no-Sabbath,  no-church,  no-Bible,  no-mar- 
riage, women's  rights  societies."  Not  the 
Methodists  alone,  but  the  Congregationalists,  the 
Presbyterians,  the  Episcopalians,  the  Baptists,  the 
Unitarians,  the  TJniversalists,  and  the  Quakers  so 
denounced  that  faction  of  them  in  which  cul- 
minated many  of  the  doctrines  of  Anne  Hutchin- 
son,  Ann  Lee,  Frances  Wright,  and  Lucretia 
Mott. 

In  an  appeal  to  the  women  of  New  York,  in 
1860,  signed  by  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  Lydia 
Mott,  Ernestine  Rose,  Martha  C.  Wright,  and 
Susan  B.  Anthony,  we  read  :  "  The  religion  of 
our  day  teaches  that,  in  the  most  sacred  relations 
of  the  race,  the  woman  must  ever  be  subject  to 
the  man ;  that  in  the  husband  centres  all  power 
and  learning ;  that  the  difference  in  position  be- 
tween husband  and  wife  is  as  vast  as  that  between 
Christ  and  the  Church ;  and  woman  struggles  to 
hold  the  noble  impulses  of  her  nature  in  abeyance 
to  opinions  uttered  by  a  Jewish  teacher,  which, 
alas !  the  mass  believe  to  be  the  will  of  God." 

In  1895,  among  the  names  of  those  responsible 
for  the  Suffrage  Woman's  Bible,  we  find  three  to 
which  the  title  "  Rev."  is  prefixed.  The  opening 
commentary  on  the  first  verses  of  Genesis,  where 
the  creation  of  man  is  described,  says :  "  Instead 
of  three  male  personages,  as  generally  represented, 
a  Heavenly  Father,  Mother,  and  Son  would  seem 
more  rational.  The  first  step  in  the  elevation  of 
woman  to  her  true  position,  as  an  equal  factor  in 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.     255 

human  progress,  is  the  cultivation  of  the  religious 
sentiment  in  regard  to  her  dignity  and  equality, 
the  recognition  by  the  rising  generation  of  an  ideal 
Heavenly  Mother,  to  whom  their  prayers  should 
be  addressed,  as  well  as  to  a  Father."  Here  is 
Ann  Lee's  doctrine  revived  with  a  mocking  sug- 
gestion that  savors  more  of  Frances  Wright  than 
of  its  poor,  half-crazed  author.  The  soul-suffi- 
ciency of  Ann  Hutchinson,  the  spiritual  anarchy 
of  Lucretia  Mott,  the  infidelity  and  the  veiled 
coarseness  of  Frances  Wright,  have  all  found  fit 
setting  in  this  commentary  on  the  Pentateuch.  I 
know  that  Miss  Anthony  repudiates  the  Suffrage 
Woman's  Bible  in  the  name  of  the  Association  of 
which  she  is  President.  It  certainly  does  not 
represent  the  faith  or  the  culture  or  the  doctrines 
of  many  who  belong  to  that  body ;  but  she  can- 
not really  repudiate  it  for  herself  or  for  them.  It 
was  promised  in  the  History  of  which  she  is  co- 
editor,  it  was  foreshadowed  in  her  circular  quoted 
above,  as  well  as  in  innumerable  speeches  of  hers 
in  convention.  Those  Christian  and  philanthropic 
bodies  that  have  attached  themselves  to  the  Suf- 
frage movement  have  this  book  to  account  for 
and  with.  Whatever  they  may  personally  decide 
to  think  or  say  of  it,  it  is  the  consummate  blossom 
of  the  spirit  of  the  Suffrage  movement,  and  the 
names  it  bears  upon  its  title-page  represent  the 
varied  classes  that  have  worked  for  the  political 
enfranchisement  of  woman.  By  the  world  out- 
side it  will  so  be  dealt  with. 


256  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

Few  movements  have  been  started,  especially 
among  women,  that  did  not  professedly  stand 
upon  high  moral  and  religious  ground.  Fourier- 
ism  was  superhuman  in  its  intention, — in  this 
country,  at  least.  Free-thinking  hopes  to  deliver 
the  soul  from  the  bondage  of  superstition  in  all 
religion.  Mormonism  was  founded  as  "  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-Day  Saints."  Commun- 
ism at  Oneida  was  professedly  built  upon  the  doc- 
trine of  human  perfection  in  Christian  love.  The 
disaster  to  the  soul  is  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  perversion  of  a  living  faith.  Every  movement 
must  be  judged,  not  by  what  its  advocates  sup- 
pose themselves  to  believe,  but  by  that  which  time 
proves  they  do  believe. 

But  to  return  to  the  Suffrage  charge.  "  Ameri- 
can men  may  quiet  their  consciences  with  the  de- 
lusion that  no  such  injustice  exists  in  this  country 
as  in  Eastern  nations.  Though,  with  the  general 
improvement  in  our  institutions,  woman's  condi- 
tion must  inevitably  have  improved  also,  yet  the 
same  principle  that  degrades  her  in  Turkey  in- 
sults her  here."  American  men  may  quiet  their 
consciences,  while  striving  to  enlighten  them  fur- 
ther. The  answer  to  Mohammedanism  is  Turkey. 
The  answer  to  Christianity  is  America.  Ceremo- 
nial uncleanness  is  absolutely  unlike  religious  and 
social  orderliness  in  the  distribution  of  duties. 
How  came  there  to  be  "  general  improvement  in 
our  institutions?"  There  has  been  no  improve- 
ment in  Turkey,  in  China,  in  India,  or  in  Japan, 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.    257 

except  such  as  is  creeping  back  from  the  Chris- 
tendom of  which  these  Suifragists  speak  with  a 
sneer.  Freedom  and  education  have  not  been,  ap- 
preciably advanced  by  "  woman's  becoming  a  com- 
ponent part  of  the  government "  in  any  land. 
The  lands  where  she  has  the  most  apparent  gov- 
ernmental control  are  the  ones  that  are  least  edu- 
cated and  least  free  among  those  of  modern  civili- 
zation. .  ; 

The  church  is  an  ever-growing  body,  and  its 
clergy  hold  widely  differing  beliefs.  The'  Egyp- 
tian priesthood  guarded  the  sacred  mysteries  and 
ruled  the  state.  Through  the  utmost  that  natural 
religion  can  do  for  man,  they  had  gleaned  the 
secret  of  a  Supreme  Maker  and  Euler  of  the  uni- 
verse. Moses,  who  was  "  learned  in  all  their  wis- 
dom," led  the  first  exiles  across  the  sea  to  find 
"  freedom  to  worship  God,"  and,  from  that  day 
to  this,  the  ministers  of  religion  have  stood  as 
public  guard  over  the  mysteries  of  faith  and,  in 
the  beginnings  of  each  civilization,  have  ruled  the 
state.  Whenever  they  have  forgotten  the  lesson 
that  Moses  taught,  the  lesson  that  Paul  more 
clearly  taught,  that  to  God  alone  is  any  soul  re- 
sponsible, they  have  proved  stumbling-blocks  to 
progress.  It  is  true  that  religious  bigots,  as  Suf- 
frage writers  say,  have  "  defended  capital  punish- 
ment, intemperance,  slavery,  polygamy,  and  the 
subjection  of  woman."  But  capital  punishment  is 
defended  by  many  besides  bigots.  Intemperance 
finds  not  only  its  strongest  but  its  most  effective 
17 


258  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

foes  in  the  Christian  ministry  and  the  Christian 
church.  Slavery  in  our  country  rent  in  twain 
several  great  religious  bodies.  James  G.  Birney 
says  that  "  probably  nine-tenths  of  the  Abolition- 
ists were  church-members."  With  polygamy  came 
woman's  subjection  and  woman  suffrage  into  our 
free  States.  And  the  bigots  outside  the  Christian 
ministry  and  church  must  share  the  same  con- 
demnation with  any  who,  professing  freedom, 
have  yet  forgotten  the  injunction  of  the  Bible  and 
the  Christ. 

"  She  would  invade  the  pulpit."  Invasion  seems 
a  strange  word  to  use  in  regard  to  woman's  en- 
trance upon  one  of  the  highest  of  human  duties. 
A  pulpitless  teacher  she  is  and  always  has  been. 
Missionary  women  have  taught  multitudes  of 
beings.  The  Salvation  lassie  has  no  thought  of 
invasion,  or  of  self-exaltation,  when  she  leads  the 
service  of  a  thousand  souls  ;  and  I  am  not  willing 
to  believe  that  a  single  woman  who  has  entered  the 
regular  ministry  has  any  more.  It  is  the  spirit 
of  Suffrage  that  looks  upon  woman's  advance  as 
an  attack. 

But  times  have  changed,  say  Suffrage  leaders. 
Mrs.  Cornelia  K.  Hood,  in  her  report  of  the 
King's  County  Suffrage  work  for  1895,  says: 
"  A  circular  letter  was  addressed  to  all  the  clergy- 
men known  to  be  friends,  asking  them  that  a 
sermon  might  be  preached  by  them  in  favor  of 
woman  suffrage.  This  request  met  with  a  liberal 
response,  and  many  able  addresses  were  made  on 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.     259 

the  Sunday  morning  set  for  that  purpose."  In 
her  report  of  the  Suffrage  campaign  in  New  York 
city  in  the  winter  of  1895-96,  Dr.  Jacobi  says, 
speaking  of  the  parlor  meetings :  "  Several  prom- 
inent clergymen  joined  us — Mr.  Rainsford,  the 
Rev.  Arthur  Brooks,  Mr.  Percy  Grant,  Mr.  Eaton, 
Mr.  Leighton  "Williams."  In  referring  to  the  last 
regular  meeting  of  the  County  Suffrage  Associa- 
tion held  that  winter  in  Cooper  Union,  she  says : 
"  The  meeting  was  addressed  by  Samuel  Gompers, 
President  of  the  Federation  of  Labor,  by  Dr. 
Peters,  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  by  Father  Ducey} 
the  Catholic  priest,  Dr.  Saunders,  a  Baptist 
minister,  and  Henry  George,  the  advocate  of 
single  tax."  In  her  address  before  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention,  she  said :  "  The  Church, 
which  fifty  years  ago  was  a  unit  in  denouncing 
the  public  work  of  woman — even  for  the  slave — 
is  now  divided  in  its  councils."  The  church 
never  was  a  unit  in  denouncing  the  public  work 
of  woman,  and  much  of  her  noblest  public  work 
has  been  done  under  its  auspices.  The  behavior 
of  Suffrage  women  in  slavery  times  caused 
scandal  to  church  and  state.  The  right  of  private 
judgment,  claimed  alwa}rs  by  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity, has  divided  the  clergy  on  all  questions ; 
and  "  a  clergyman,  a  priest,  and  a  minister  "  were 
as  free  to  believe,  and  to  speak  what  they  believed, 
on  suffrage,  as  were  Samuel  Gompers,  who  lately 
offended  the  Labor  organization  by  inviting  two 
anarchists  to  address  it,  and  Henry  George,  whose 


260  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

single-tax  theories  have  lately  turned  law  and 
order  upside  down  in  Delaware. 

"  Interpret  the  Bible  anew  from  her  own  stand- 
point." The  volume  in  which  a  beginning  has 
been  made  in  this  work  is  a  thick  pamphlet  bear- 
ing a  motto  from  Cousin  on  one  cover,  and  the 
picture  of  a  piano  as  an  advertisement  on  the 
other.  It  is  with  a  profound  sense  of  sadness  and 
disgust  that  any  woman  who  honors  God  and  loves 
her  own  sex  turns  its  pages.  Behold  the  first 
dilemma  in  which  the  commentators  find  them- 
selves involved.  Mrs.  Stanton  opens  the  com- 
ments on  the  Creation  as  follows :  "  In  the  great 
work  of  the  creation,  the  crowning  glory  was 
realized  when  man  and  woman  were  evolved  on 
the  sixth  day,  the  masculine  and  feminine  forces 
in  the  image  of  God,  that  must  have  existed 
eternally,  in  all  forms  of  matter  and  mind.  .  .  . 
How  then  is  it  possible  to  make  woman  an  after- 
thought? .  .  .  All  those  theories  based  on  the 
assumption  that  man  was  prior  in  the  creation, 
have  no  foundation  in  Scripture.  As  to  woman's 
subjection,  on  which  both  the  canon  and  civil  law 
delight  to  dwell,  it  is  important  to  note  that 
equal  dominion  is  given  to  woman  over  every 
living  thing,  but  not  a  word  is  said  giving  man 
dominion  over  woman.  No  lesson  of  woman's 
subjection  can  be  fairly  drawn  from  the  first 
chapter  of  the  Old  Testament." 

In  commenting  on  the  second  account  of  the 
Creation,  Ellen  Battelle  Dietrick  says :  "  It  is 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.     261 

now  generally  conceded  that  some  one  (nobody 
pretends  to  know  who)  at  some  time  (nobody 
pretends  to  know  exactly  when)  copied  two 
creation  myths  on  the  same  leather  roll,  one  im- 
mediately following  the  other.  Modern  theolo- 
gians have,  for  convenience  sake,  entitled  these 
two  fables,  respectively,  the  Elohistic  and  the 
Jahoistic  stories.  They  differ  not  only  in  the 
point  I  have  mentioned  above,  but  in  the  order  of 
the  '  creative  acts,'  in  regard  to  the  mutual  atti- 
tude of  man  and  woman,  and  in  regard  to  human 
freedom  from  prohibitions  imposed  by  deity. 
Now,  it  is  manifest  that  both  of  these  stories 
cannot  be  true;  intelligent  women  who  feel 
bound  to  give  the  preference  to  either,  may 
decide  according  to  their  own  judgment  which  is 
more  worthy  of  an  intelligent  woman's  accept- 
ance. My  own  opinion  is,  that  the  second  story 
•was  manipulated  by  some  wily  Jew,  in  an  en- 
deavor to  give  *  heavenly  authority '  for  requiring 
a  woman  to  obey  the  man  she  married."  Lillie 
Devereux  Blake  takes  still  another  horn  of  the 
dilemma.  She  says  :  "  In  the  detailed  descrip- 
tion of  creation  we  find  a  gradually  ascending 
series.  '  Creeping  things,'  '  great  sea-monsters,' 
every  bird  of  wing,'  *  cattle  and  living  things  of 
the  earth,'  the  *  fish  of  the  sea  and  the  birds  of 
the  heavens ; '  then  man,  and,  last  and  crowning 
glory  of  the  whole,  woman.  It  cannot  be  main- 
tained that  woman  was  inferior  to  man,  even  if, 
as  asserted  in  chapter  ii.,  she  was  created  after 


262  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

him,  without  at  once  admitting  that  man  is 
inferior  to  the  creeping  things  because  created 
after  them." 

These  commentators,  on  the  whole,  agree  that 
the-  first  account  of  creation  does  not  teach 
woman's  subjection  to  man ;  that,  although  "  some 
wily  Jew"  inserted  the  second  account  in  an 
endeavor  to  give  "  heavenly  authority  for  requir- 
ing a  woman  to  obey  the  man  she  married,"  he 
has  been  outwitted  after  all,  for  the  ascending 
series  of  creation  really  teaches  the  same  lesson  as 
the  first  account,  and  from  it  woman's  inferiority 
cannot  be  maintained.  And  yet  it  would  seem 
that  she  must  be  an  "  afterthought "  if  she  is  to 
be  superior. 

Mrs.  Stanton,  in  summing  up  the  concensus  of 
opinion  on  a  matter  which  is  not  of  the  slightest 
importance  to  any  of  them,  except  that  they  feel 
an  interest,  for  the  cause  of  Suffrage,  in  endeavor- 
ing to  release  woman  from  the  long  bondage  of 
superstition,  says :  "  The  first  account  dignifies 
woman  as  an  important  factor  in  the  creation, 
equal  in  power  and  glory  with  man.  The  second 
makes  her  a  mere  afterthought.  The  world  in 
good  running  order  without  her,  the  only  reason 
for  her  advent  being  the  solitude  of  man.  There 
is  something  sublime  in  bringing  order  out  of 
chaos  ;  light  out  of  darkness  ;  giving  each  planet 
its  place  in  the  solar  system;  oceans  and  lands 
their  limits, — wholly  inconsistent  with  a  petty 
surgical  operation  to  find  material  for  the  mother 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.    263 

of  the  race.  It  is  in  this  allegory  that  all  the 
enemies  of  woman  rest  their  battering-rams,  to 
prove  her  inferiority.  Accepting  the  view  that 
man  was  prior  in  the  creation,  some  Scriptural 
writers  say  that,  as  the  woman  was  of  the  man, 
therefore  her  position  should  be  one  of  subjection. 
Grant  it.  Then,  as  the  historical  fact  is  reversed 
in  our  day,  and  the  man  is  now  of  the  woman, 
shall  his  place  be  one  of  subjection  ?  The  equal 
position  declared  in  the  first  account  must  prove 
more  satisfactory  to  both  sexes  ;  created  alike  in 
the  image  of  God — the  heavenly  Mother  and 
Father.  Thus,  the  Old  Testament,  '  in  the  begin- 
ning,' proclaims  the  simultaneous  creation  of  man 
and  woman,  the  eternity  and  equality  of  sex ; 
and  the  New  Testament  echoes  back  through  the 
centuries  the  individual  sovereignty  of  woman 
growing  out  of  this  natural  fact.  Paul,  in  speak- 
ing of  equality  as  the  very  soul  and  essence  of 
Christianity,  said,  '  There  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is 
neither  male  nor  female ;  for  ye  are  all  one  in 
Christ  Jesus.  With  this  recognition  of  the  fem- 
inine element  in  the  Godhead  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  this  declaration  of  the  equality  of  the 
sexes  in  the  New,  we  may  well  wonder  at  the 
contemptible  status  woman  occupies  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church  to-day." 

So  the  woman  who  spurns  the  Bible  as  the 
book  that  is  responsible  for  woman's  degradation, 
who  denies  that  it  is  the  word  of  God,  who  pours 


264  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

out  upon  Paul  the  vials  of  her  wrath,  finds  in 
them  both  her  highest  warrant  for  believing  in 
the  "  equal  position "  of  woman,  "  the  perfect 
equality  of  the  sexes."  "When  the  wrath  of  woman 
thus  praises  God,  the  one  who  believes  that 
through  woman's  status  in  the  Bible  and  in  the 
Christian  Church  this  perfect  equality  is  being 
worked  out  day  by  day  need  not  take  up  con- 
troversial cudgels.  Ribaldry  in  woman  seems 
more  gross  than  in  man,  and  this  is  woman's 
ribaldry.  It  is  profane  to  speak  of  the  "  feminine 
element  in  the  Godhead."  God  is  a  spirit.  There 
is  no  more  a  feminine  than  a  masculine  element 
in  the  Godhead.  Sex  belongs  to  mortal  life  and 
its  conditions.  It  begins  and  ends  with  this  earth. 
Christ  has  told  us  so :  There  will  be  in  another 
world  "  no  marrying,  nor  giving  in  marriage,  but 
we  all  shall  be  as  the  angels  in  heaven."  The 
equality  of  which  Paul  spoke  as  "  the  very  soul 
and  essence  of  Christianity  "  is  the  equality  of  the 
essence  and  soul  of  male  and  female  humanity, 
and  the  oneness  of  the  believer's  soul  with  that 
of  the  'Christ  in  whom  his  soul  believes.  The 
soul  of  humanity,  as  well  as  its  body,  is  bound 
by  sex  conditions  as  long  as  it  draws  the  breath 
of  this  transitory  life.  Every  thought  and  every 
act  reveal  the  governing  power  of  the  sex  mould 
in  which  its  form  is  cast  for  this  world's  uses. 
The  use  of  this  world  is  to  give  preparation  for 
another  and  a  better  one ;  final  spiritual  triumph 
is  the  end  to  be  attained.  Humanity  is  now  in 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CI1URCH.     265 

the  image  of  God  only  in  the  essential  sense  in 
which  the  full  corn  in  the  ear  may  be  said  to  be 
wrapped  up  in  its  kernel,  and  it  can  unfold  only 
according  to  the  laws  of  its  being.  The  first  ac- 
count of  Creation  sets  forth,  with  the  beautiful 
imagery  of  the  Orient,  the  general  and  ultimate 
truth.  The  second  account,  with  the  same  grand 
simplicity,  foreshadows  the  method  and  the  long, 
slow  process  by  which  this  ultimate  end  is  to  be 
attained. 

In  continuing  their  comments,  the  editors  say : 
"In  chapter  v.,  verse  23,  Adam  proclaims  the 
eternal  oneness  of  the  happy  pair,  '  This  is  now 
bone  of  my  bone  and  flesh  of  my  flesh  ; '  no  hint 
of  her  subordination.  How  could  men,  admitting 
these  words  to  be  divine  revelation,  ever  have 
preached  the  subjection  of  woman  ?  Next  comes 
the  naming  of  the  mother  of  the  race.  '  She  shall 
be  called  woman,'  in  the  ancient  form  of  the 
word,  '  womb-man.'  She  was  man  and  more  than 
man,  because  of  her  maternity.  The  assertion  of 
the  supremacy  of  the  woman  in  the  marriage  re- 
lation is  contained  in  chapter  v.,  24  :  '  Therefore 
shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his  mother  and 
cleave  unto  his  wife.'  Nothing  is  said  of  the 
headship  of  man,  but  he  is  commanded  to  make  her 
the  head  of  the  household,  the  home,  a  rule  fol- 
lowed for  centuries  under  the  Matriarchate." 

A  rule  that  has  been  followed  rudely  through 
all  centuries,  and  is  followed  to-day  with  far 
greater  approach  to  perfect  obedience.  Mater- 


266  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

nity  was  to  be  God's  method  of  working  out 
the  problem  of  changing  the  innocence  of  igno- 
rant savagery  to  the  holiness  of  enlightened  civil- 
ization. To  this  end,  the  more  delicate  and  com- 
plex organism  of  the  womb-man  must  be  cared 
for  by  the  strength  and  steadiness  that  could  find 
full  play  because  that  subtler  task  was  not  demand- 
ed of  it. 

In  commenting  on  chapter  iii.,  which  contains 
the  account  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  the  eating 
of  the  apple,  they  say :  "  As  out  of  this  allegory 
grow  the  doctrines  of  original  sin,  the  fall  of  man 
and  of  woman  the  author  of  all  our  woes,  and  the 
curses  on  the  serpent,  the  woman  and  the  man, 
the  Darwinian  theory  of  the  gradual  growth  of 
the  race  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  type  of  animal 
life  is  more  hopeful  and  encouraging." 

The  Christian  doctrine  is  more  hopeful  and  en- 
couraging still.  It  reveals  the  growth  of  the  race 
from  a  low  type  of  animal  life  to  the  perfect  life 
of  the  soul. 

We  do  not  need  to  go  back  to  the  garden  where 
our  first  parents  dwelt,  to  look  for  the  substan- 
tiation of  the  eternal  truth  of  this  whole  wondrous 
story.  Amid  the  landscape  of  the  civilization  of 
the  noblest  country  that  the  world  possesses,  we 
have  the  drama  repeated.  In  the  work  of  Anne 
Hutchinson,  Ann  Lee,  Frances  "Wright,  Lucretia 
Mott,  Elizabeth  Stanton,  Susan  Anthony,  Ellen 
Dietrick,  Lillie  Blake,  and  their  fellow-commen- 
tators, we  have  re-enacted  the  Temptress  and  the 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.     267 

Fall.  "Woman  first  aspired.  She  stretched  forth 
her  eager  hand  to  seize  the  good,  and  in  so  doing 
snatched  the  evil  that  grew  beside  it.  The  woman 
in  Eden  had  not  learned  what  maternity  taught 
her  later — that  she  could  point  the  path,  but  could 
not  lead  in  entering  it.  Wherever  woman  has 
forgotten  this  hard-won  but  glorious  lesson,  she 
has  been  the  most  dangerous  of  guides.  The 
conscience,  that  intellect  of  the  soul,  woke  first 
in  woman.  By  her  obedience  to  its  voice,  the 
faith  that  worketh  by  love  had  its  perfected 
work,  and  the  promise  that  was  given  to  her  was 
fulfilled  in  the  birth  of  Christ.  A  Creation  story 
without  a  gospel  is  chaos  without  gravitation, 
primal  darkness  without  the  sun.  Forward  to 
divinity  in  human  form  woman  was  able,  through 
obedience,  to  point  mankind.  Backward  to  di- 
vinity in  human  form  she  points  again,  until 
humanity  itself  shall  become  divine.  If  she  loses 
the  final  vision,  or  substitutes  her  own,  she  can 
neither  point  nor  guide.  No  wonder  woman  has 
been  a  mystery  to  the  church.  No  wonder  a  witch 
was  not  allowed  to  live,  while  a  wizard  might ; 
she  was  more  dangerous.  No  wonder  Paul  was 
perplexed  by  the  woman  question.  No  wonder 
monks  fled  to  the  desert.  Christ  has  spoken  the 
final  words  of  woman,  "  Thy  faith  hath  saved 
thee."  From  the  anguish  of  His  cross  he  said : 
"  Woman,  behold  thy  son  ! "  "  Behold  thy  mother," 
and  the  beloved  disciple  "  took  her  to  his  own 
home  from  that  hour." 


268  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

In  the  Suffrage  appeal  of  1860,  the  writers  said : 
"The  difference  between  husband  and  wife  is  as  vast 
as  the  difference  between  Christ  and  his  Church." 
Christ  himself  says  that  the  difference  between 
him  and  his  Church  is  that  of  degree,  not  of 
kind,  and  that  the  resemblance  is  that  of  essential 
oneness.  He  says :  "  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the 
branches."  Could  union  be  more  completely  pic- 
tured ?  The  fruit-bearing  branch  cannot  say  to 
the  strength-giving  vine,  "  I  have  no  need  of  thee." 
The  vine  cannot  say,  "  I  have  no  need  of  thee." 
Man  in  his  imperious  folly  has  pictured  the  rela- 
tionship as  that  of  oak  and  vine  which  have  no 
organic  union ;  but,  despite  imperiousness  and  folly, 
both  men  and  women,  through  mutual  obedience 
to  God,  have  thus  far  worked  out,  and  are  still 
working  out,  the  nobler  destiny  for  both. 

In  summing  up  their  opinion  of  the  Pentateuch, 
the  editors  of  the  Suffrage  Woman's  Bible  say  : 
"  This  utter  contempt  for  all  the  decencies  of  life, 
and  all  the  natural  personal  rights  of  women,  as 
set  forth  in  these  pages,  should  destroy,  in  the 
minds  of  women  at  least,  all  authority  to  super- 
human origin,  and  stamp  the  Pentateuch  at  least 
as  emanating  from  the  most  obscene  minds  of  a 
barbarous  age."  So  low  can  woman  fall  in  igno- 
rance and  shameless  audacity  when  the  faith  that 
works  by  love  is  lost.  As  the  spirit  of  the  Com- 
mandments comes  to  prevail,  the  decencies  of  life 
and  the  natural  personal  rights  of  woman  become 
more  secure.  Here  again  Christ  has  spoken  the 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.    269 

ultimate  word.  He  says  :  "  Ye  have  heard  by 
them  of  old  time '  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery,' 
but  I  say  unto  you  whosoever  looketh  on  a  woman 
to  lust  after  her  hath  committed  adultery  with 
her  already  in  his  heart."  This  is  the  standard  of 
chastity  to  which  mankind  must  come.  When 
the  Hebrew  mother  in  living  faith  cast  the  bread 
of  her  own  life's  being  upon  the  Nile,  she  was  to 
find  it  after  many  days  in  the  great  law-giver  of 
her  people.  The  Commandments  received  through 
him  were  the  foreshadowing  of  those  greater 
oracles  in  which  Christ  summed  up  the  whole 
duty  of  man.  The  individual  liberty  which 
Moses  was  the  first  to  proclaim  to  a  whole  people, 
in  the  Pentateuch,  Christ,  his  anti-type,  proclaimed 
to  a  whole  world,  and  on  his  proclamation  rests 
to-day  the  freedom  of  woman  and  of  the  Ameri- 
can Republic.  The  Bread  of  Life,  again  cast  on 
the  troubled  waters  of  this  world,  by  Avoman's 
faith,  through  Mary  the  Virgin  Mother,  is  return- 
ing after  many  days. 

Strange  that  we  should  forever  turn  back,  as  if 
the  application  of  any  essential  truth  were  finished. 
The  child  walks  by  faith.  The  childhood  of  the 
world  walked  by  faith,  and  left  in  the  Bible  the 
evidence  of  things  that  are  not  seen  but  are  eter- 
nal. The  Suffrage  movement  has  a  quarrel  with 
the  Bible  because  the  Creator  is  there  represented, 
for  the  reverence  of  the  race,  under  the  guise  of  a 
Heavenly  Father,  and  not  a  Heavenly  Mother,  or 
rather,  not  as  a  human  pair,  equal  in  dignity  and 


270  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

power.  If  the  first  impulsion  of  love  toward  God 
had  come  into  this  world  through  the  mind  of 
man,  he  would  have  represented  the  divine  love 
that  his  soul  conceived  under  the  guise  of  that 
being  on  earth  whom  he  most  loved.  But  love 
was  born  with  the  "  disabilities "  of  woman  ;  it 
was  evolved  through  motherhood  ;  and  the  same 
impulse  that  gave  it,  exalted,  not  itself,  but  what 
it  loved  and  trusted.  "  I  have  gotten  a  man  from 
the  Lord"  said  the  first  recorded  mother,  who 
had  learned  to  know  the  Lord  through  mother- 
hood ;  and  the  boy  she  bore  was  taught  to  look 
up  with  confidence  to  the  strength  and  protection 
of  his  father.  She  told  him  that  the  pity  of  his 
father,  which  made  him  bring  food  and  raiment, 
and  which  guarded  his  home,  was  an  image  of  the 
feeling  that  was  felt  for  him  by  the  divine  being. 
Could  man  have  learned  the  lesson  first,  we  can 
see  that  the  story  would  have  been  different,  be- 
cause man  has  named  every  beautiful  and  gracious 
thing  for  woman.  Virtue,  temperance,  truth, 
purity,  love,  faith,  hope,  liberty,  grace,  beauty, 
charity,  the  inspirers  of  art  and  science,  of  music 
and  literature,  of  justice  and  of  religion,  all  are 
feminine.  When  man  says :  "  Our  Father  which 
art  in  heaven,"  he  prays  as  his  mother  taught  him. 
Through  the  self-abnegation  that  was  unconscious 
of  its  sacrifice,  woman  was  to  be  the  instrument 
for  bringing  human  life  up,  on,  to  the  God  who, 
being  spirit,  could  act  upon  a  clay-bound  mind 
only  through  the  highest  human  thing  that  love 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.     271 

could  know.  Men,  as  well  as  women,  have  mis- 
understood and  misinterpreted  this.  The  love 
that  "  is  not  puffed  up,"  "  doth  not  behave  itself 
unseemly,"  cannot  proclaim  its  own  virtue — to  ar- 
rogate it  is  to  lose  it.  But  the  secret  of  the  Lord 
has  been  with  those  who  feared  Him,  and  it  has 
led  the  world  aright  in  spite  of  blunder  and  of  sin. 
If  man,  in  his  ignorant  conceit,  has  fancied  that 
this  was  the  subjection  of  woman,  it  has  been  a 
part  of  his  mother's  lesson  to  correct  that  impres- 
sion. If  woman,  in  her  folly,  has  allowed  herself 
to  make  the  same  mistake,  that,  too,  is  working 
out  its  cure  through  the  love  that  so  arranged 
human  nature  that  "  a  man  should  leave  father 
and  mother  and  cleave  unto  his  wife,  and  they 
twain  should  be  one  flesh,"  and  that  "  her  desire 
should  be  to  her  husband  "  in  those  matters  where- 
in the  mutual  interest  required  that  he  should 
bear  sway.  If  there  is  a  minister  of  religion  who 
holds  to  the  perverted  notion  that,  because  woman 
ate  the  original  apple  in  disobedience  to  God's 
command,  she  was  the  bringer  of  original  sin  into 
the  world,  and  for  that  was  and  is  punished  by 
arbitrary  subjection  to  the  authority  of  man,  that 
minister  does  not  deserve  the  support  of  women. 
The  fact  that  he  would  have  few  listeners,  and 
fewer  followers,  if  women  were  not  the  bringers 
and  the  maintainers  of  religious  faith  is  sufficient 
proof  against  such  an  exposition  of  scripture.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  while  the  dogmatism  of  belief, 
like  the  dogmatism  of  unbelief,  has  made  asser- 


272  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

tions  that  have  dishonored  both  divine  and  human 
nature,  the  practical  working  of  formulated  faiths 
of  all  names  has  been  to  approach  the  standard 
laid  down  in  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament. 
The  model  of  being  set  by  Christ  is  that  of  a  little 
child.  "  Except  ye  become  as  little  children,  ye 
shall  in  no  wise  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
The  natural  characteristics  of  the  child  are  faith, 
and  hope,  and  love — the  virtues  that  abide.  When 
the  virile  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  "  put  away 
childish  things,"  he  kept  these  childlike  qualities. 
If  woman  first  attains  them  in  perfection,  she  is 
superior ;  if  man,  he  is  superior.  In  the  race  to- 
ward the  final  goal,  to  be  equal  in  accomplishment 
it  is  needful  to  be  equal  in  obedience.  The  key- 
note of  Paul's  preaching  was  obedience — the  obe- 
dience of  all  human  beings  to  God  in  Christ,  the 
obedience  of  all  men  and  women  to  lawful  civil 
authority  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and  the  promo- 
tion of  his  kingdom, — the  obedience  of  men  to  one 
another  in  the  churchly  offices,  for  the  sake  of 
that  "  decency  "  that  he  loved  and  enjoined — the 
obedience  of  the  equal  wife  to  the  husband  who 
was  the  external  representative  of  family  life. 

With  Eastern  nations  the  veil  was  the  sign  of 
retirement,  of  domestic  life,  and  it  was  assumed 
by  wives  when  they  were  in  the  street  or  in  a 
public  assembly.  In  heathen  and  barbarous 
countries  it  was  also  deemed  a  sign  of  woman's 
subjection  and  inferiority.  The  Hebrews  were 
the  first  people  to  attain  any  truly  spiritual  con- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.    273 

ceptions,  and  they  began  to  have  a  commensu- 
rately  higher  idea  of  the  possibilities  of  woman's 
nature  and  work.  "When  Christian  women,  in 
their  new-found  freedom,  would  have  thrown 
aside  the  veil,  just  as  Christian  men,  in  their  new- 
found reverence  for  God,  would  have  repudiated 
the  heathen  wife,  Paul  said  to  them  both  that 
Christian  liberty  was  individual, — it  changed  the 
character,  not  the  sex  relations.  In  arranging  for 
church  discipline,  he  advised  that  men  should  un- 
cover the  head,  and  women  should  Avear  the  veil. 
But  he  said,  in  reference  to  that  veil,  that  "  woman 
should  have  power  on  her  head,  because  of  the 
angels."  The  angels  are  spoken  of  in  the  ]S~ew 
Testament  as  veiling  their  faces  in  the  very  pres- 
ence of  the  Creator.  In  that  truer  symbolism  of 
Christianity,  man  was  to  uncover  his  head  in  token 
of  reverence  to  God  and  acceptance  of  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  guardianship  of  the  earth.  Woman 
was  to  cover  her  head  in  token  of  her  acceptance 
of  man's  guardianship  and  of  her  dominion  over 
his  heart,  to  which  she  had  revealed  God's  will. 

Paul  adds :  "  For  as  the  woman  is  of  the  man, 
so  is  the  man  also  of  the  woman ;  but  all  things 
are  of  God."  This  relation  was  one  of  the  mys- 
teries that  Paul  said  he  did  not  comprehend,  nor 
could  he,  till  the  lessons  he  taught  should  work 
out  their  results,  and  might  serve  as  commen- 
tary. 

Life  itself,  as  well  as  all  that  life  could  come  to 
mean,  depended  upon  woman's  consenting.  The 
18 


274  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

word  "obey"  in  some  marriage  services  seems, 
like  what  it  really  is,  a  survival.  Obedience  has 
brought  its  reward,  and  the  consent  of  the  heart 
is  more  than  the  consent  of  the  lips.  But  if  there 
is  no  consent  of  the  heart  to  wifehood  and  mother- 
hood, in  time  there  will  be  no  chivalry,  no  prog- 
ress, no  final  emancipation  for  the  race.  Con- 
senting is  also  commanding,  and  woman  loses  her 
life  in  order  to  find  it  in  the  fulfillment  of  her 
wish.  It  was  consent  to  her  own  teaching. 
The  chivalrous  and  tender-hearted  Paul,  who 
spoke  of  women  with  reverent  affection,  who 
adopted  as  his  own  the  mother  of  Rufus,  was  re- 
peating the  lesson  of  every  Jewish  mother  from 
Sarah  to  Deborah,  and  from  Deborah  to  the 
women  who  were  last  at  Christ's  cross  and  first 
beside  his  tomb.  Deborah,  who  was  the  judge, 
prophetess  and  poet,  but  first  of  all  "  a  mother  in 
Israel,"  under  whom  her  degenerate  people  had 
peace  for  forty  years,  rebuked  Barak  and  said,  to 
their  humiliation :  "  This  day  shall  the  Lord  de- 
liver Israel  by  the  hand  of  a  woman."  From  this 
teaching  Paul  uttered  his  rebuke  to  the  wayward 
church  at  Corinth :  "  It  is  a  shame  ior  a  man  to 
cover  his  head,  inasmuch  as  he  is  the  image  and 
glory  of  God ;  but  the  woman  is  the  glory  of  the 
man."  And  he  added,  in  speaking  of  the  wear- 
ing of  the  veil,  "  For  this  cause  ought  the  woman 
to  have  power  "  "  because  of  the  angels."  In  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  Paul  admonishes  the 
Church  to  be  "  imitators  of  God,  as  beloved  chil- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.    275 

dren,  and  walk  in  love,  even  as  Christ  also  loved 
you,  and  gave  himself  for  you,  an  offering  and  a 
sacrifice  to  God  for  a  sweet-smelling  savour." 
Again,  he  says :  "  Therefore,  as  the  Church  is  sub- 
ject unto  Christ,  so  let  the  wives  be  to  their  own 
husbands  in  everything."  And  as  if  to  make 
doubly  certain  that  no  one  should  think  that  such 
submission  implied  bondage  or  inequality,  he  adds 
"  Husbands,  love  your  wives  even  as  Christ  also 
loved  the  Church  and  gave  himself  for  it."  Again, 
he  says :  "  So  ought  men  to  love  their  wives,  as  their 
own  bodies.  .  .  .  Even  as  the  Lord  the  Church," 
adding  with  almost  strained  Oriental  vehemence, 
"  for  we  are  members  of  his  body,  of  his  flesh  and 
of  his  bones.  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  his 
father  and  his  mother,  and  shall  be  joined  unto 
his  wife,  and  they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh." 

The  comment  most  readily  suggested  is,  that 
through  this  teaching  the  use  of  the  veil  has  now  no 
such  significance.  The  uncovering  of  the  head  is  a 
token  of  respect,  largely  to  woman.  The  reten- 
tion of  the  bonnet  is  not  dreamed  of  in  connection 
with  woman's  relation  to  man,  nor  does  it  suggest 
woman's  power  in  the  moral  world.  The  obedi- 
ence through  which  love  "  constrained  "  a  mind 
that  had  been  bred  to  forms,  was  free  If  any- 
body now  holds  that  woman  was  intended  to 
glorify  God  indirectly,  through  man,  or  to  serve 
God  by  serving  man,  he  makes  an  assumption 
long  discredited,  and  not  in  accord  with  the  spirit 
of  Christ  and  of  Paul.  Man  is  as  much  the  glory 


276  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

of  woman  as  woman  is  the  glory  of  man,  and  they 
reveal  equally  the  glory  of  God. 

In  speaking  of  the  proprieties  of  life,  Paul  said : 
"  Does  not  nature  herself  teach  you  ?  "  "  If  a 
man  have  long  hair,  it  is  a  shame  to  him."  "  If  a 
woman  have  long  hair,  it  is  a  glory  to  her."  The 
badge  of  womanhood  is  a  glory,  and  the  "  short- 
haired  women  and  long-haired  men  "  of  the  early 
Suffrage  movement  transformed  the  symbols  of 
dignity  and  honor  into  those  of  contempt  and  dis- 
grace. 

Canon  law  grew  up  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
when  came  the  great 

"  Death-grapple  in  the  darkness,  'twixt  old  systems  and  the 
Word." 

The  wondrous  church  that  rose  on  the  ruins  of 
Roman  militarism,  and  overthrew  Norman  feud- 
alism, gave  evidence,  in  its  code,  of  the  bitterness 
of  the  conflict  and  the  rudeness  of  the  time.  The 
legal  fiction  that,  in  acknowledging  the  oneness 
of  husband  and  wife,  yet  made  the  husband  that 
one,  was  a  perversion  of  Scripture. 

It  has  been  publicly  said  by  Suffragists  from, 
the  first,  that  the  tenets  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
in  which  Canon  law  had  its  origin,  were  inimical 
to  woman  suffrage ;  and  they  have  further  said 
that  those  who  canonize  women  and  worship  the 
Virgin  Mother,  should  naturally  have  been  friendly 
to  the  Suffrage  idea.  I  suppose  no  one  will 
deny  that  the  spirit  of  the  Roman  body  is  that  of 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH.     277 

a  state  church.  I  have  no  more  to  say  in  criti- 
cism of  it  as  a  Christian  denomination  than  I  have 
of  others ;  but  that  organization  which  has  held 
temporal  and  spiritual  power  to  be  co-ordinate 
and  interdependent  in  government,  presents  a 
political  phase  that  has  direct  bearing  on  my 
theme,  and  I  make  my  few  comments  as  a  histo- 
rian. The  Church  that  inculcates  Mariolatry 
would  have  far  more  ignorant  women  to  add  to 
our  body  of  voters  than  any  other.  It  has  done 
less  for  woman's  education  and  general  advance- 
ment than  any  other,  but  its  claims  are  not  there- 
fore modest.  The  school  elections  in  Staten  Island 
last  year  gave  an  object-lesson  in  regard  to  its  in- 
tention to  use  the  suffrage.  In  Connecticut,  the 
school  election  presented  another  evidence  of  the 
intense  interest  felt  by  the  Catholic  clergy  in  pub- 
lic-school matters.  In  California,  in  the  late  can- 
vass for  woman  suffrage,  that  Church  assisted 
largely  in  carrying  on  the  work  to  secure  the 
amendment.  While  many  of  its  individual  mem- 
bers are  among  the  noblest  friends  that  civil  and 
religious  freedom  have  in  our  country,  this  church, 
by  its  traditions,  and  by  its  latest  pronunciamentos, 
shows  itself  as  a  force  that,  for  its  own  selfish 
reasons,  may  be  reckoned  on  the  side  of  woman 
suffrage  in  its  conflict  with  woman's  progress. 


CHAPTER  X. 

WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    AND    SEX. 

THE  ninth  count  of  the  Suffrage  Declaration 
says :  "  He  has  created  a  false  sentiment  by 
giving  to  the  world  a  different  code  of  morals  for 
men  and  women,  by  which  moral  delinquencies 
which  exclude  woman  from  society,  are  not  only 
tolerated,  but  deemed  of  little  account  in  men." 
And  the  list  of  grievances  is  summed  up  as 
follows :  "  Because  women  do  feel  themselves 
aggrieved,  oppressed  and  fraudulently  deprived  of 
their  most  sacred  rights,  we  insist  that  they  have 
immediate  admission  to  all  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges which  belong  to  them  as  citizens  of  the 
United  States." 

The  writers  do  not  say  whether  the  code  of 
morals  referred  to  is  a  code  of  law  or  an  un- 
written code  of  public  sentiment.  If  they  mean 
the  former,  their  statement  is  not  true ;  for  what- 
ever laws  affect  moral  delinquencies  visit  their 
penalties  equally  upon  men  and  women.  If  they 
mean  public  sentiment  alone,  the  answer  is,  that 
both  men  and  women  are  responsible  for  its 

creation.      It  is  folly  to  deny   that  there  is,  in 
278 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  279 

the  nature  of  things,  more  excuse  for  men  than 
for  women.  A  mother  realizes  that  her  son  has  a 
natural  temptation  of  which  her  daughter  knows 
nothing.  But  this  fact,  while  it  accounts  in  part 
for  the  different  standard,  by  no  means  exoner- 
ates man.  One  of  the  strangest  anomalies  of 
human  experience  exists  in  connection  with  this 
matter.  Man  reposes  his  deepest  faith  in  the 
existence  of  goodness  at  its  vital  point,  in  the 
virtue  of  woman ;  and  yet  when  he  tramples  upon 
that  virtue  he  screens  himself  behind  the  excuse 
that  her  nature  is  as  vulnerable  as  his  own,  while 
his  temptation  is  greater.  The  main  reason,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  why  women  often  appear  more 
cruel  to  their  fallen  sisters  than  do  men,  lies  in 
the  fact  that  pure  women  abhor  this  vice  as  they 
abhor  no  other.  Besides  bestowing  upon  woman 
a  loftier  moral  sense,  her  Creator  has  hedged 
about  her  virtue  with  a  feeling  of  physical  repul- 
sion that  is  distinct  from  the  moral  question  in- 
volved. The  social  life  of  the  world  is  to  a  large 
extent  in  woman's  hands.  "When  she  says  to 
men  "  You  cannot  bring  your  impurity  into  my 
home,"  "You  must  be  the  ones  to  guard  our 
sons  and  daughters,"  the  reform  will  be  begun  in 
earnest.  Woman's  faith,  and  her  abstract  way  of 
looking  at  moral  questions,  prevent  her  from  fast- 
ening her  thought,  as  men  naturally  do,  on  any 
special  culprit,  in  her  severe  but  vague  sense  of 
wrong  in  this  matter.  The  Suffragists  have  taken 
fewer  steps  in  the  direction  of  removing  the  social 


280  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

plague-spot  than  in  the  direction  of  bringing 
about  a  system  of  easier  divorce — a  thing  that 
strikes  a  blow  directly  against,  instead  of  for,  the 
virtue  of  their  sex.  Social  opinion  is  causing  a 
change  in  some  of  the  laws  concerning  social  vice. 
Nearly  every  State  legislature  has  raised  the 
age  of  consent.  So  far  as  Suffrage  associations 
have  assisted  in  this,  it  proves  their  ability  and 
their  good  will ;  but  much  more  is  due  to  our  edu- 
cated physicians  and  philanthropists. 

It  seems  at  first  thought  as  if  there  were  no 
direct  connection  between  voting  and  social  ques- 
tions of  sex ;  but  I  am  following  the  lead  of  my 
Suffrage  texts.  Others  who  attempt  the  discus- 
sion are  led  to  the  same  themes.  Dr.  Jacobi,  in 
her  book,  says  :  "  The  problem  is,  to  show  why, 
in  a  representative  system  based  on  the  double 
principle  that  all  the  intelligence  in  the  state  shall 
be  enlisted  for  its  welfare,  and  all  the  weak- 
ness in  the  state  represented  for  its  own  defence, 
women,  being  often  intelligent,  and  often  weak, 
and  ahvays  persons  in  the  community,  should  not 
also  be  represented."  In  replying  to  the  anti- 
suffrage  arguments  of  Prof.  Goldwin  Smith,  she 
says :  "  Do  sex  relations  depend  upon  acts  of 
Parliament  or  constitutional  amendments  ?  Can 
women  marry  a  ballot,  or  embrace  the  franchise, 
otherwise  than  by  a  questionable  figure  of  speech  ? 
Must  adultery  and  infanticide  necessarily  be 
favored  by  the  decisions  of  female  jurors?  Is 
divorce  legislation,  as  arranged  by  the  exclusive 


WOMAN  SUFFBAGE  AND  SEX.  281 

wisdom  of  men,  now  so  satisfactory  that  women 
— who  must  perforce  be  involved  in  every  case — 
should  always  modestly  refrain  from  attempting 
amendment  ?  This  entire  class  of  considerations, 
however  irrelevant  to  the  issue,  may  be  grouped 
together  and  considered  together,  because,  to  a 
large  class  of  minds — the  rudest,  quite  as  much  as 
those  of  Mr.  Smith's  cultivation — they  are  the 
considerations  that  do  come  to  the  front  when- 
ever equal  rights  are  suggested."  She  adds  that 
the  reason  they  come  to  the  front  is,  "  that  men, 
accustomed  to  think  of  men  as  possessing  sex 
attributes  and  other  things  besides,  are  accus- 
tomed to  think  of  women  as  having  sex  and  noth- 
ing else." 

Is  there  a  ruder  mind  anywhere  than  one  that 
could  not  only  think  but  write  a  sentiment  so 
revolting  and  so  false  ?  And  yet  the  statement 
admits  that,  whatever  the  reason,  the  sex  issue 
does  underlie  the  whole  Suffrage  question. 

In  their  "History,"  the  leaders  not  only  set 
forth  all  the  specific  charges  in  their  Declaration 
of  Sentiments,  but  of  this  "  rebellion  such  as  the 
world  has  never  seen  "  they  say  :  "  Men  saw  that 
with  political  equality  for  woman,  she  could  no 
longer  be  kept  in  social  subjection.  The  fear  of  a 
social  revolution  thus  complicated  the  discussion." 

In  the  Introduction  to  the  Suffrage  Woman's 
Bible,  the  commentators  say :  "  How  can  woman's 
position  be  changed  from  that  of  a  subordinate 
to  an  equal,  without  opposition  ? — without  the 


282  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

broadest  discussion  of  all  the  questions  involved 
in  her  present  degradation  ?  For  so  far-reaching 
and  momentous  a  reform  as  her  complete  inde- 
pendence, an  entire  revolution  in  all  existing  in- 
stitutions is  inevitable." 

Dr.  Jacobi  says :  "  To-day,  when  all  men  rule, 
and  diffused  self-government  has  abolished  the 
old  divisions  between  the  governing  classes  and 
the  governed,  only  one  class  remains  over  whom 
all  men  can  exercise  sovereignty — namely,  the 
women.  Hence  a  shuddering  dread  runs  through 
society  at  the  proposal  to  also  abolish  this  last 
refuge  of  facile  domination." 

Here,  then,  all  these  Suffragists  present  a  prob- 
lem far  more  momentous  than  appears  when  it 
~is  proposed  "to  show  why,  in  a  representative 
system  based  on  the  double  principle  that  all  the 
intelligence  in  the  state  shall  be  enlisted  for  its 
welfare,  and  all  the  weakness  in  the  state  repre- 
sented for  its  defence,  women,  being  often  intelli- 
gent, and  often  weak,  and  always  persons,  should 
not  also  be  represented."  It  is  the  sex  battle  that 
has  been  waged  from  the  beginning.  In  the 
Suffrage  "Woman's  Bible  Mrs.  Stanton  says : 
"  The  correction  of  this  [the  misinterpretation  of 
the  Bible  as  concerns  woman]  will  restore  her, 
and  deprive  her  enemy,  man,  of  a  reason  for  his 
oppression  and  a  weapon  of  attack."  Disguise  it 
as  they  may,  to  themselves  and  to  others,  the 
Suffrage  idea  is  compelled  to  claim  that  man  is 
woman's  enemy,  that  the  ballot  is  the  engine  of 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  283 

his  power,  and  that  therefore  she  must  vote.  The 
reason  that  "  these  considerations  come  to  the 
front  whenever  equal  rights  is  mentioned  "  is  be- 
cause the  women  of  that  movement  brought  them 
there,  and  keep  them  there,  and  because  no  one 
can  seriously  consider  the  matter  without  seeing 
that  they  belong  there. 

In  discussing  them,  Dr.  Jacobi  says :  "  "What  is 
imagined,  claimed,  and  very  seriously  demanded, 
is,  that  women  be  recognized  as  human  beings, 
with  a  range  of  faculties  and  activities  co-exten- 
sive with  that  of  men,  whatever  may  be  the  dif- 
ference in  the  powers  within  that  range." 

In  another  place  she  admits  that  "  women  are 
really  recognized  as  individuals,  the  same  as  men," 
and  the  fact  that  they  are  so  recognized  is  made 
the  basis  of  an  argument  for  their  voting.  Sup- 
pose men  demanded  that  they  be  given  a  "  range 
of  faculties  and  activities  co-extensive  with  that 
of  women,  whatever  may  be  the  difference  in  the 
powers  within  that  range,"  if  they  demanded  it 
"  seriously "  they  would  probably  become  laugh- 
ing-stocks. 

She  says  :  "  The  sex  relations  of  women  as  lovers, 
as  wives,  as  mothers,  as  daughters,  remain  un- 
touched, certainly  unimpaired,  by  the  demand  to 
extend  beyond  these.  What  is  impaired  is  not 
the  sex  relation,  nor  sex  condition,  but-  the  social 
disabilities,  the  personal  and  social  subordination, 
the  condition  of  political  non-existence,  which 
have  been  foisted  upon  that  sex  condition." 


284  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

The  repeated  demand  to  "  extend  beyond  "  the 
sex  relations  of  either  sex  is  a  demand  to  touch 
those  relations,  and  whether  it  is  a  demand  to 
impair  them  depends  upon  the  question  whether 
it  is  true  that  disabilities  and  subordination  have 
been  foisted  upon  the  sex  conditions.  In  olden 
times  they  were.  Men  were  subject  to  social  dis- 
abilities, personal  and  social  subordination,  and 
political  non-existence.  It  followed  that  women 
were  also  in  the  same  subjection.  As  men  threw 
off  the  yoke,  the  sex  relations  began  to  assume 
their  natural  position.  Man  was  the  protector, 
woman  the  protected.  In  the  natural  relations, 
the  protector  is  at  the  service  of  the  protected, 
and  that  is  the  state  of  things  to-day.  In  order 
to  be  preserved  in  bodily,  mental,  and  spiritual 
freedom,  woman  must  yield  with  grace  to  the 
hand  that  serves  her.  In  order  to  protect,  man 
must  see  to  it  that  this  freedom  he  has  won  is 
kept  sacred  and  inviolable.  He  cannot  be  at  once 
a  tyrant  and  a  guard.  This  freedom  removes 
from  woman  all  disabilities  save  those  of  sex. 
The  question  then  is,  can  all  the  intelligence  and 
all  the  weakness  of  women  be  represented  for 
their  own  welfare  and  their  own  defence,  by  the 
same  methods  as  those  by  which  men  attain  that 
end,  and  yet  leave  these  fundamental  sex  relations 
untouched  and  unimpaired  ? 

The  Suffrage  leaders  did  not  expect  or  intend 
to  leave  them  untouched,  or  unimpaired,  if  com- 
plete change  was^impairment  In  the  "  History  " 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  285 

they  say :  "  It  is  often  asked  if  political  equality 
would  not  arouse  antagonism  between  the  sexes  ? 
If  it  could  be  proved  that  men  and  women  had 
been  harmonious  in  all  ages  and  countries,  and 
that  women  were  happy  and  satisfied  in  their 
slavery,  we  might  hesitate  in  proposing  any 
change  whatever ;  but  the  apathy,  the  helpless, 
hopeless  resignation  of  a  subject  class,  cannot  be 
called  happiness.  A  woman  growing  up  under 
American  ideas  of  liberty  in  government  and 
religion  cannot  brook  any  disability  based  on  sex 
alone,  without  a  deep  feeling  of  antagonism  with 
the  power  that  creates  it." 

Dr.  Jacobi  says :  "  Manhood  Suffrage  in  America 
may  seem  to  result,  historically,  from  the  general 
average  equality  of  social  conditions  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Thirteen  States.  But  it  may 
also  be  deduced  as  a  philosophical  necessity  from 
the  Idea  of  Individualism,  which  became  the  core 
of  the  Federal  Union.  This  idea,  at  first  suggested 
only  for  men,  has,  little  by  little,  spread  to 
women  also." 

Individualism,  in  the  sense  of  personal  moral 
responsibility,  became  the  core,  first  of  the 
Hebrew  Theocracy,  and  last  of  the  American 
National  life.  But  that  republicanism  which  has 
come  to  rest  on  sex  distinction  is  the  combined  re- 
sult of  Individualism  and  Authority.  Suffrage 
discussion  for  years  has  turned  upon  the  idea  of 
Individualism  versus  Authority. 

In  a  government  like  ours,  where  all  the  intelli- 


286  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

gence  and  all  the  weakness  are  represented  for  their 
own  welfare  and  defence,  authority  must  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  hold  a  stern  hand  over  individualism, 
because  freedom  for  all  means  license  for  not  a 
single  one,  be  it  man  or  woman.  Mrs.  Fanny 
Ames  says :  "  Any  argument  [against  Suffrage] 
worth  anything  at  all,  comes  down  to  this — an 
argument  against  American  democracy — and 
must  rest  there."  Many  arguments  have  been 
adduced  against  Woman  Suffrage  that  were  also 
arguments  against  democracy  ;  because  there  are 
always  people,  and  wise  people  too,  who  fear  the 
test  of  the  ultimate  experiment.  To  this  fear 
the  Suffragists  catered  when,  in  contradiction  to 
their  own  dictum  of  universal  suffrage,  they  asked 
Congress  for  a  sixteenth  amendment  that  should 
require  an  educational  qualification  for  all,  both 
men  and  women.  But,  guided  by  the  statesman- 
ship that  seeks  to  form  a  true  and  enduring  democ- 
racy, this  Republic  has  come  to  the  sex  basis. 

Dr.  Jacobi  says :  "  The  complex  contradictions 
in  the  present  distributions  of  sovereign  power 
are  further  intensified  by  the  vulgarization  of  the 
general  ideal.  It  is  one  thing  to  say,  *  Some  men 
shall  rule,'  quite  another  to  declare,  'All  men 
shall  rule,'  and  that  in  virtue  of  the  most  primitive 
and  rudimentary  attribute  they  possess, — that, 
namely,  of  sex.  If  the  original  contempt  for 
masses  of  men  has  ever  diminished,  and  the  con- 
ception of  mankind  been  ennobled,  it  is  because, 
upon  the  primitive  animal  foundation,  human 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  287 

imagination  has  built  a  fair  structure  of  mental 
and  moral  attribute  and  possibility,  and  habitually 
deals  with  that.  This  indeed  is  no  new  thing 
to  do  ;  for  -it  was  to  this  moral  man  that  Pericles 
addressed  his  funeral  oration,  and  of  whom  Lin- 
coln thought  in  his  speech  at  Gettysburg.  Of 
this  moral  man,  women — the  sex  hitherto  so 
despised — are  now  recognized  to  constitute  an 
integral  part.  It  is  useless,  therefore,  to  attempt 
to  throw  them  out  by  an  appeal  to  the  primitive 
conditions  of  a  physical  force  to  which  no  one 
appeals  for  any  other  purpose." 

The  immortal  orator  at  Gettysburg  was  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  an  army  and  navy  whose  physi- 
cal power  was  then  in  the  very  act  of  saving  the 
nation  and  redeeming  it  from  the  sin  of  slavery. 
The  soldier-statesman  of  Greece,  in  his  funeral  ora- 
tion, was  addressing  an  army.  The  fair  structure 
of  mental  and  moral  attribute  and  possibility  has 
not  been  built  by  human  imagination.  The  con- 
ception of  the  moral  man  that  has  ennobled  man- 
kind is  older  than  any  man  who  has  embodied  it. 
It  is  as  old  as  mankind  itself,  upon  whose  primi- 
tive animal  foundation  God  implanted  side  by 
side  the  conception  of  the  moral  man,  woman — 
and  of  the  governing  man,  man. 

That  no  inequality  should  be  possible  when 
this  idea  should  really  rest  upon  the  most  primi- 
tive, rudimentary  and  yet  continuing  and  control- 
ling attribute,  instead  of  upon  complex  contra- 
dictions in  regard  to  the  distribution  of  sovereign 


288  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

human  power,  God,  speaking  through  the  ideal 
which  the  moral  man  had  grasped,  said  :  "  There- 
fore shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his  mother, 
and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife,  and  they  twain 
shall  be  one  flesh." 

Man  is  not  the  hereditary  sovereign  in  a  republic. 
He  is  an  actual,  present,  continuing  sovereign,  and 
he  is  that  only  so  long  as  he  obeys  the  law  of  his 
being  and  constitutes  himself,  by  reason  of  his 
manhood  strength,  the  defence  of  the  republic's 
laws  for  all.  In  woman  suffrage  democracy  has 
met  a  most  dangerous  foe.  It  has  been  asked 
"  If  it  would  be  best  for  man  to  make  over  half 
his  sovereignty  to  woman  ?  "  I  cannot  imagine 
how  he  could  do  this,  whatever  might  be  his  wish. 
Sovereignty  in  a  republic  is  only  divisible  among 
those  who  are  equals  as  to  sovereign  power  ;  and 
any  effort  to  divide  with  those  who  lack  the  es- 
sential attribute  must  result  in  despotism  or  an- 
archy. Men  are  as  subject  to  the  restrictions  and 
requirements  of  sex  as  are  women,  and  when  they 
try  an  experiment  contrary  to  those  conditions, 
the  end  must  be  destruction  of  government  itself. 

Prof.  Goldwin  Smith  says :  "  One  of  the  feat- 
ures of  a  revolutionary  era  is  the  prevalence  of  a 
feeble  facility  of  abdication.  The  holders  of  power, 
however  natural  and  legitimate  it  may  be,  are  too 
ready  to  resign  it  on  the  first  demand.  .  .  .  The 
nerves  of  authority  are  shaken  by  the  failure  of 
conviction." 

This  is  true,  and  it  is  what  makes  the  present 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  289 

situation  portentous.  From  the  very  tender- 
heartedness of  the  men  of  our  time  comes  the 
danger  to  the  women  of  this  nation.  So  far  from 
desiring  to  hold  the  slightest  restriction  over  the 
women  of  the  Republic,  they  may  rush  into  an 
attempt  at  abdication  of  a  sovereignty  that  did 
not  originate  in  their  will  but  in  their  environ- 
ment, in  order  to  prove  the  sincerity  of  their  de- 
sire that  woman  should  not  even  appear  to  be 
compelled  to  obey. 

This  movement  is  a  feature  of  the  revolutionary 
era  that  seems  suddenly  to  have  extended  to  the 
men  with  whose  theories  it  belongs.  Not  at  once, 
nor  everywhere  equally,  but  finally  and  com- 
pletely would  this  change  come.  Man,  as  well  as 
woman,  must  "  consent  to  be  governed "  by  the 
laws  of  being.  If  man  really  could  "  share  his 
sovereignty,"  there  might  be  some  show  of  reason 
in  the  Suffrage  claim  that  he  should  do  so.  But 
unless  he  can  abdicate  the  very  essentials  of  his 
sex  condition,  he  cannot  abdicate  his  sovereignty. 
His  laws  are  dead  letters  whenever  more  men 
than  those  who  passed  them  and  approve  them 
choose  that  they  shall  be  dead.  He  would  have 
no  material  outside  the  men  in  this  country,  with 
which  to  execute  the  wishes  of  the  woman  voters 
whom  it  is  proposed  to  introduce  to  make  laws 
which  they  know  they  cannot  themselves  enforce. 

And  this  leads  us  right  round  again  to  consider 
the  "disabilities  foisted  upon  sex  conditions." 
The  first  thing  demanded  of  a  voter  is  that,  in  the 


290  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

ordinary  state  of  things,  he  should  be  able  to  vote. 
A  body  of  citizens  is  asking  that  a  sex  foe  admitted 
to  franchise  when  it  is  known  to  all  that  a  large 
part  of  that  sex  would  at  every  election  find  it  phys- 
ically impossible,  or  improper,  to  go  to  the  polls. 
Suffragists  say :  "  No  women  need  vote  who  do  not 
wish  to ;  but  they  have  no  right  to  hinder  us." 
Is  this  the  Individualism  of  Democracy  ?  It  is 
the  Individualism  of  Anarchy.  It  is  not  the  rule 
of  the  majority.  It  is  class  rule  with  a  vengeance ; 
and  as  for  "  consenting  to  be  governed,"  there 
never  was  a  man  or  a  government  that  so  coolly 
assumed  to  govern  without  their  consent  such  a 
body,  as  do  the  Suffragists.  The  disabilities 
"foisted  upon  sex  "would  be  felt  first  of  all  by 
the  wives  and  mothers  who  are  most  interested  in 
the  laws. 

The  next  duty  of  citizenship  is  jury  service.  The 
leaders  said  :  "  We  demand,  in  criminal  cases, 
that  most  sacred  of  all  rights,  trial  by  jury  of  our 
own  peers."  In  regard  to  jury  duty  Suffragists 
are  not  agreed  ;  which  fact  alone  shows  that  that 
service  would  be  felt  to  be  an  impairment  of  sex 
conditions.  So  impossible  has  jury  duty  been 
found,  even  in  small  communities,  that  in  Wyom- 
ing the  jury  service  of  women  ceased  with  the 
first  judge  who  admitted  them  to  serve  at  all; 
and  in  Colorado  but  one  or  two  women  have  ever 
served.  The  judges  there  do  not  allow  them  to  be 
called.  It  was%  found  to  be  expensive,  and  not 
promotive  of  the  ends  of  justice.  Whether  this 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  291 

is  held  to  be  man's  cruel  withholding  of  woman's 
rights  or  not,  it  shows  that  either  the  sex  condi- 
tion or  the  co-extensiveness  of  woman's  work  with 
man's  must  be  impaired.  Dr.  Jacobi  says  in  re- 
gard to  jury  service :  "  The  numerous  cases  for 
exemption  now  admitted  for  men  would  be  cer- 
tainly paralleled  for  women,  but  they  would  not 
always  be  identical.  Men  are  now  more  often 
excused  for  business;  women  would  be  excused 
on  the  plea  of  ill-health.  Of  course  the  special 
plea  of  family  cares  with  young  children  would 
rule  out  thousands  of  women  during  a  number  of 
years  of  their  lives." 

"Who  would  establish  the  "special  plea"  for 
so  large  a  proportion  of  the  voting  population  ? 
No  law  of  justice  on  which  a  solid  government 
can  rest  could  do  it ;  and  that  it  would  be  asked, 
and  needed,  shows  that  sex  conditions  would  in- 
terfere with  voting  conditions.  A  criminal  case 
often  lasts  weeks,  even  months,  during  which 
time  the  jury  are  kept  together  and  alone,  locked 
up  at  night,  and  walked  out  by  day.  This  second 
duty  cannot  be,  and  is  not,  performed ;  not  be- 
cause many  women  would  not  make  good  jurors, 
not  because  they  should  not  try  delicate  cases, 
and  might  not  serve  well  at  certain  times,  and  in 
special  ways,  but  because  jury  duty,  like  military 
service,  cannot  take  account  of  sex  conditions 
when  they  are  the  rule  and  not  the  exception. 

Office-holding  is  the  next  necessary  concomi- 
tant of  the  ballot.  Of  course  it  can  be  said  at 


292  WOMAN  AND  T1IE  REPUBLIC. 

once :  "  Why,  multitudes  of  men  never  hold 
office,  why  should  women  ? "  It  may  be  an- 
swered that  multitudes  of  men  do  hold  office,  that 
no  American  would  think  of  extending  the  ballot 
without  expecting  that,  as  an  accompaniment,  the 
duty,  or  the  privilege,  of  office-holding  should 
follow. 

Not  only  is  it  true  that  if  more  than  half  the 
population  were  added  to  the  voting  list  multi- 
tudes among  them  would  attempt  to  rush  into 
office,  but  it  was  mainly  for  office  that  a  majority 
of  those  who  have  been  pressing  the  demand  cared 
for  the  vote.  The  authors  of  the  "History" 
say :  "  As  to  offices,  it  is  not  be  supposed  that 
the  class  of  men  now  elected  will  resign  to  women 
their  chances,  and,  if  they  should  to  any  extent, 
the  necessary  number  of  women  to  fill  the  offices 
would  make  no  apparent  change  in  our  social 
circles.  If,  for  example,  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  should  be  entirely  composed  of  women,  but 
two  in  each  State  would  be  withdrawn  from  the 
pursuit  of  domestic  happiness." 

How  could  "the  class  of  men  now  elected" 
help  resigning,  if  women  enough  chose  to  put  up 
a  woman  and  give  her  a  majority  of  votes, — pro- 
vided, as  Suffragists  say,  that  the  vote  secures  the 
office  and  retains  it  by  a  mere  mandate  ?  But  it 
is  not  one  office,  or  set  of  offices,  which  we  have 
to  consider.  It  is  the  entrance  upon  political  life, 
permanently,  of  a  large  body  of  women.  "What 
that  means  to  the  social  life  that  "  would  not 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  293 

miss  them,"  we  well  know.  There  could  be  no 
domestic  ties ;  no  hindering  child.  The  time 
would  be  short  before  this  unnatural  position 
would  breed  a  race  of  Aspasias — without  the 
intellect  that  ruled  "  the  ruler  of  the  land,  when 
Athens  was  the  land  of  fame." 

The  "  History "  says :  "  An  honest  fear  is 
sometimes  expressed  *  that  women  would  degrade 
politics,  and  politics  would  degrade  women,' "  and 
the  writers  answer :  "  As  the  influence  of  woman 
has  been  uniformly  elevating  in  new  civilizations, 
in  missionary  work  in  heathen  lands,  in  schools, 
colleges,  literature,  and  general  society,  it  is  fair 
to  suppose  that  politics  would  prove  no  excep- 
tion." We  do  not  need  to  depend  upon  fore- 
cast or  inference.  The  influence  of  women  upon 
politics,  and  the  influence  of  politics  upon  women, 
have  already  been  degrading.  This  is  true  of 
political  intrigue  in  the  old  world,  and  of  the 
"  Female  Lobby  "  in  "Washington.  It  is  astonishing 
to  what  an  extent  it  is  true  in  our  new  country, 
with  our  fresh  and  sweet  traditions. 

In  1851,  Mrs.  Stanton,  writing  to  a  convention 
at  Akron,  Ohio,  said :  "  The  great  work  before 
us  is  the  education  of  those  just  coming  on  the 
stage  of  action.  Begin  with  the  girls  of  to-day, 
and  in  twenty  years  we  can  revolutionize  this 
nation.  Teach  the  girl  to  go  alone  by  night  and 
day,  if  need  be,  on  the  lonely  highway,  or  through 
the  busy  streets  of  the  crowded  metropolis.  Better 
for  her  to  suffer  occasional  insults,  or  die  outright, 


294  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

than  live  the  life  of  a  coward,  or  never  move 
without  a  protector.  .  .  .  Teach  her  that  it  is  no 
part  of  life  to  cater  to  the  prejudices  of  those 
around  her.  Make  her  independent  of  public 
sentiment,  by  showing  her  how  worthless  and 
rotten  a  thing  it  is.  ...  Think  you,  women  thus 
educated  would  long  remain  the  weak,  dependent 
beings  we  now  find  them?  They  would  soon 
settle  for  themselves  this  whole  question  of 
Woman's  Rights." 

Fifty  years  of  such  teaching  has  had  its  effect. 
The  fine  bloom  has  too  often  been  brushed  from 
our  girls'  delicacy  of  thought.  They  can  strut 
through  the  street  in  the  daytime  wearing  a  shirt- 
front,  a  cravat,  a  choker,  a  vest,  and  a  man's  hat, 
and  carrying  a  cane.  A  few  can  flaunt  them- 
selves in  bloomers  and  knickerbockers,  and  ride 
astride  a  bicycle.  They  ape  men  in  everything 
except  courtesy  to  women.  But  the  result  is  not 
what  was  expected.  These  customs  have  intro- 
duced the  chaperone,  and  have  put  an  end  to 
simple  freedom  between  boys  and  girls.  The 
Puritan  maiden  in  her  modesty  could  let  John 
Alden  speak  for  himself,  because  the  John  who 
could  summon  courage  to  speak  of  love  to  such  a 
girl  would  not  dare  to  breathe  impurity.  When 
the  young  woman  requires  a  social  spy,  the  young 
man  is  apt  to  forget  that  her  innocent  dignity  is 
her  own  best  guardian.  With  the  passing  of  the 
"  lady,"  American  women  may  fail  to  remember 
that  a  gentlewoman  need  pretend  to  no  aristoc- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  295 

racy  but  that  of  the  noblesse  oblige  of  her  own 
femininity.  In  the  paragraph  quoted  above, 
women  are  spoken  of  as  those  who  are  "  uniformly 
elevating "  and  as  "  weak  and  dependent "  to  a 
contemptuous  degree.  They  cannot  be  both  at 
once,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  in  fact  they  are 
neither.  Woman  is  not  an  angel  nor  a  demon, 
not  a  conqueror  nor  a  slave.  But  the  seed  from 
which  any  of  these  conflicting  natures  may  de- 
velop lies  in  more  fertile  soil,  within  her  impas- 
sioned and  impressible  soil,  than  in  man's.  The 
Suffrage  movement  will  leave  her  much  better  or 
worse  than  it  found  her.  The  phrase  "  the  new 
woman,"  with  the  instinctive  explanation  that  she 
"  is  as  refined,  or  as  good  a  wife,  mother,  sister, 
daughter,  housekeeper,"  as  the  old,  is  ominous. 

Suffrage  writers  seem  to  hold  two  views  in 
regard  to  sex.  One  is,  that  it  is  so  pervasive  that 
it  cannot  be  affected  by  any  line  of  conduct.  The 
other  is,  that,  so  far  as  mind  is  concerned,  it  is 
purely  a  fanciful  barrier,  and  the  less  there 
appears  of  external  distinction  the  better  will  this 
be  realized.  The  Suffrage  "  History  "  says :  "  Sex 
pervades  all  matter.  Whatever  it  is,  it  requires 
no  special  watchfulness  on  our  part  to  see  that  it 
is  maintained."  At  the  same  time  the  dictum 
"  There  is  no  sex  in  mind,"  has  been  a  Suffrage 
war-cry.  It  seems  to  me  that  both  views  are  un- 
scientific and  dangerous  to  social  morals.  Sex  in- 
tegrity is  pervasive  of  the  whole  nature  only  when 
men  and  women  are  true  to  the  ideal  of  the  essen- 


296  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

tial  distinctions  in  each.  The  true  environment 
of  woman  is  womanliness ;  not  to  fit  her  nature  to 
the  utmost  that  womanliness  can  mean  to  the 
world,  is  to  fail  of  womanly  attainment.  But 
making  herself  a  distorted  woman  cannot  make 
her  even  an  imperfect  man.  The  mere  act  of  go- 
ing to  the  polls  is  not  unwomanly  ;  it  might  be  as 
proper  as  going  to  the  post-office ;  but  attempting 
to  encroach  upon  duty  that  is  laid  upon  man 
in  her  behalf  is  neither  womanly  nor  manly. 

In  demanding  equality,  Suffragists  assume 
that  there  is  not  and  has  not  been  equality.  In 
asserting  that  "  there  is  no  sex  in  mind,"  they 
really  have  had  to  maintain  that  there  is  one  sex 
in  mind,  and  that  the  masculine,  to  which  woman 
must  conform.  If  man  wanted  clinching  argu- 
ments to  prove  his  superiority,  could  he  find 
another  to  match  this  one  which  suffrage  has 
furnished  him  ?  The  quaint  wit  of  the  Yankee 
put  it  neatly  when  he  gave  the  toast,  "  "Woman — 
once  our  superior,  now  our  equal ! "  Man  has 
said :  "  The  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  rules  the 
world."  lie  has  also  said,  with  Martin  :  "  What- 
ever may  be  the  customs  and  laws  of  a  country, 
the  women  of  it  decide  the  morals."  The  civiliza- 
tion of  no  nation  has  risen  higher  than  the  carrying 
out  of  the  religious  ideals  of  its  best  womanhood. 
If  man  has  the  outward  framing  of  church  and 
state,  woman  has  the  framing  of  the  character  of 
man.  There  is  no  schism  in  the  body  of  human 
duties  as  the  Lord  established  them.  The  issues 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  297 

have  become  more  distinctly  and  openly  moral 
issues ;  and  in  so  far  as  woman  can  make  it  con- 
sist with  that  inner  life  of  the  home  and  the  child, 
which  alone  can  make  the  family  and  fix  the 
state  on  any  sure  foundation,  she  is  welcomed  by 
man  to  meet  the  common  foe.  Such  new  avenues 
to  wealth  and  distinction  as  she  can  enter  with 
womanly  dignity  and  grace  will  open  to  her  as 
fast  as  man  can  make  them  places  where  she  can 
walk  with  security  and  comfort  to  herself  and 
advantage  to  them  both.  And  they  will  open 
no  faster. 

The  woman  Suffragist  has  had  to  wage  as  bitter 
a  warfare  against  physical  science  as  against 
religion.  Eliza  Burt  Gamble,  in  her  volume  which 
discusses  "The  Evolution  of  "Woman,"  takes  up 
the  cudgels  against  both  the  Bible  and  man's 
scientific  classification  of  woman,  or  rather  his 
failure  to  classify  her  properly  at  all.  She  says : 
"  When  we  bear  in  mind  the  past  experience  of 
the  human  race,  it  is  not  perhaps  surprising  that, 
during  an  era  of  physical  force  and  the  predomi- 
nance of  the  animal  instincts  in  man,  the  doctrine 
of  male  superiority  should  have  become  firmly 
grounded.  But  with  the  dawn  of  scientific  inves- 
tigation it  might  have  been  hoped  that  the  prej- 
udices resulting  from  a  lower  condition  of  human 
society  would  disappear.  When,  however,  we 
turn  to  the  most  advanced  scientific  writers  of 
the  present  century,  we  find  that  the  prejudices 
which  throughout  thousands  of  years  have  been 


298  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

gathering  strength  are  by  no  means  eradicated. 
Mr.  Darwin,  whenever  he  had  occasion  to  touch 
on  the  mental  capacities  of  women,  or,  more  par- 
ticularly, the  relative  capacities  of  the  sexes,  mani- 
fested the  same  spirit  which  characterizes  an 
earlier  age." 

Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  essay  on  "  Justice,"  says 
that  he  once  favored  woman  suffrage  "  from  the 
point  of  view  of  a  general  principle  of  individ- 
ual rights."  Later  he  finds  that  this  cannot  be 
maintained,  because  he  "discovers  mental  and 
emotional  differences  between  the  sexes  which 
disqualify  women  from  the  burden  of  government 
and  the  exercise  of  its  functions."  He  also  con- 
siders it  absurd  for  women  to  claim  the  vote  and 
military  exemption  in  the  name  of  equality. 

Science  has  told  us  of  the  active,  as  well  as  the 
passive,  part  that  the  mother  plays  in  the  growth 
of  the  embryo,  and  at  the  same  time  has  told  us 
that  the  sex  of  that  embryo  is  determined  by  the 
nourishing  power  of  the  mother.  The  common- 
place statistics  of  the  census  come  in  with  their 
verifying  word,  and  we  find  that  in  rude  times 
and  hard  conditions  more  boys  are  born.  Gentle 
conditions  and  abundance  are  favorable  to  the 
birth  of  girls.  Here  is  the  same  story  we  have 
learned  so  often.  Man  the  protector,  woman  the 
protected.  Woman  the  inspiring  force,  man  the 
organizing  and  physical  power. 

So  the  Bible,  Science,  and  Kepublican  govern- 
ment, according  to  Suffragist  and  Anti-suffragist, 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  299 

have  planted  themselves  squarely  on  the  sex  issue. 
It  is  solid  standing-ground,  and  neither  apparent 
irrelevancy  nor  real  antagonism  will  dislodge  the 
argument. 

Dr.  Jacobi,  in  her  address  before  the  Consti- 
tutional Convention,  said  :  "  Still,  all  women  do 
not  demand  the  suffrage.  We  are  sometimes  told 
that  the  thousands  of  women  who  do  want  the 
suffrage  must  wait  until  those  who  are  now  indif- 
ferent, or  even  hostile,  can  be  converted  from 
their  position.  Gentlemen,  we  declare  that 
theory  is  preposterous.  It  is  true  that  the  exer- 
cise of  an  independent  sovereignty  necessitates 
the  demonstration  of  a  very  considerable  amount 
of  independence.  A  rebel  state  that  cannot  break 
its  own  blockade  may  not  call  upon  a  foreign 
power  to  move  from  its  neutrality  to  do  so.  But 
the  demand  for  equal  suffrage  is  in  nowise  analo- 
gous to  a  claim  for  independent  sovereignty.  It 
is  rather  analogous  to  the  claim  to  the  protection 
of  existing  laws,  which  any  group  of  people,  or 
even  a  single  person,  may  make." 

Under  a  democratic  government  a  claim  for 
equal  suffrage  is  a  claim  to  share  the  independent 
sovereignty  that  protects,  and  therefore  it  cannot 
be  analogous  to  a  claim  for  protection,  individual 
or  otherwise,  under  that  sovereignty.  Does  Dr. 
Jacobi  mean  that  in  asking  for  suffrage  she  does 
not  ask  to  be  as  much  an  independent  sovereign 
as  any  masculine  voter  of  them  all  ?  The  com- 
parison of  woman's  claims  to  suffrage  to  the  pro- 


300  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

tection  afforded  by  existing  laws,  suggests  a  nar- 
rowing of  the  demand  to  fit  the  requirements  of 
an  apparently  hopeless  struggle  for  a  majority 
vote  of  women. 

The  Government  is  spoken  of  by  Suffragists  as 
if  it  were  something  exterior  to  and  apart  from 
the  individual  voters — a  code  of  laws  that  had 
been  set  going  and  would  run  of  itself,  the  laws 
being  changed  by  more  or  fewer  votes,  but  the 
power  to  execute  being  automatic  and  continuous. 
As  this  is  the  opposite  of  the  actual  situation, 
these  rebels  will  have  to  "  break  their  own  block- 
ade "  like  any  others. 

The  "  pacific  blocade  "  that  is  enforced  by  the 
Quaker  guns  of  this  movement  has  its  peaceful 
war-cries.  One  of  the  most  exultant  is  an  allusion 
to  the  expression  "  We  the  people "  in  the  pre- 
amble of  our  national  Constitution,  with  the  ques- 
tion whether  "  people  "  does  not  include  women. 
A  reading  of  the  entire  preamble  shows  that,  of 
the  six  achievements  there  specified  as  the  pur- 
pose of  the  Constitution,  every  one  is  a  thing  that 
only  men  can  do — with  the  possible  exception  of 
the  fifth,  which  proposes  rather  vaguely  to  "  pro- 
mote the  general  welfare." 

As  to  the  thousands  of  women  who  want  the 
vote,  there  are  some  figures  as  to  the  majority  that 
"  are  indifferent  or  even  hostile."  I  see  by  the 
pamphlet  published  by  the  New  York  State  Suf- 
frage Association,  that  they  have  but  1,600  pay- 
ing members,  which  is  not  one  in  a  thousand  of 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  SEX.  301 

the  women  in  the  State  over  twenty  years  of 
age.  As  Mrs.  Winslow  Crannell  has  made  a 
careful  computation  from  figures  published  in 
the  "  Woman's  Journal,"  edited  by  Henry  B. 
Blackwell  and  his  daughter  Alice  Stone  Black- 
well,  I  quote  her  results  :  In  Maine  there  are  but 
12  Suffragists  to  every  100,000  of  the  people ;  in 
New  Hampshire,  but  5  to  every  100,000 ;  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, but  51  to  every  100,000 ;  in  Connecti- 
cut, but  23  to  every  100,000.  Pennsylvania  has 
but  14  in  100,000 ;  Kentucky  has  32  to  100,000  ; 
Michigan,  but  6  to  100,000;  Illinois  has  13  to 
100,000 ;  Ohio  has  11  to  100,000 ;  Iowa  has  6  to 
100,000 ;  Virginia,  but  1  to  100,000 ;  New  Jersey, 
8  to  100,000;  Arkansas,  3  to  100,000;  South 
Carolina,  3  to  100,000.  Calfornia  has  33  in  every 
100,000,  and  Maryland  has  6  in  100,000.  If  the 
suffrage  is  claimed  for  tax-paying  women,  it  can 
be  shown  that  there  are,  in  New  York  State,  for 
instance,  at  least  1,500,000  women  who  do  not 
pay  taxes.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  tax- 
paying  women  of  this  State  were  among  the  first 
signers  of  Anti-suffrage  petitions. 


CHAPTER  XL 

WOMAN   SUFFRAGE   AND   THE    HOME. 

THE  tenth  count  in  the  Suffrage  Declaration  is  : 
"  He  has  usurped  the  prerogative  of  Jehovah  him- 
self, claiming  it  as  his  right  to  assign  for  her  a 
sphere  of  action,  when  that  belongs  to  her  con- 
science and  to  her  God." 

In  the  "History  of  Woman  Suffrage,"  the 
editors  say :  "  Quite  as  many  false  ideas  prevail 
as  to  woman's  true  position  in  the  home  as  else- 
where. Womanhood  is  the  great  fact  of  her  life  ; 
wifehood  and  motherhood  are  but  incidental  rela- 
tions." 

The  first  legislation  demanded  by  the  Suffra- 
gists was  that  which  called  for  a  change  of  the 
marriage  laws,  so  as  to  admit  of  divorce,  first 
for  drunkenness,  and  later  for  several  other 
causes.  In  discussing  the  matter  in  convention, 
Mrs.  Stanton  presented  resolutions  that  declared, 
among  other  things,  "  That  any  constitution, 
compact,  or  covenant  between  human  beings  that 
failed  to  produce  or  promote  human  happiness, 
could  not,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  of  any  force 
or  authority  ;  and  it  would  be  not  only  a  right, 

but  a  duty,  to  abolish  it.    That  though  marriage 
302 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  HOME.       303 

be  in  itself  divinely  founded,  and  is  fortified  as 
an  institution  by  innumerable  analogies  in  the 
whole  kingdom  of  universal  nature,  still  a  true  mar- 
riage is  only  known  by  its  results ;  and  like  the 
fountain,  if  pure,  will  reveal  only  pure  manifesta- 
tions. That  observation  and  experience  daily 
show  how  incompetent  are  men,  as  individuals,  or 
as  governments,  to  select  partners  in  business, 
teachers  for  their  children,  ministers  of  their  relig- 
ion, or  makers,  adjudicators  or  administrators  of 
their  laws ;  and  as  the  same  weakness  and  blind- 
ness must  attend  in  the  selection  of  matrimonial 
partners,  the  dictates  of  humanity  and  common- 
sense  alike  show  that  the  latter  and  most  impor- 
tant contract  should  no  more  be  perpetual  than 
either  or  all  of  the  former." 

In  supporting  these  resolutions,  Mrs.  Stanton 
said,  "  I  place  man  above  all  governments,  eccle- 
siastical and  civil — all  constitutions  and  laws." 
"  In  the  settlement  of  any  question,  we  must 
simply  consider  the  highest  good  of  the  individ- 
ual." Antoinette  Brown  Black  well  followed  Mrs. 
Stanton  with  a  series  of  resolutions  in  which 
she  opposed  her,  and  defended  the  sanctity  of 
marriage.  Wendell  Phillips  moved  that  neither 
series  of  resolutions  be  entered  on  the  journal. 
Mr.  Garrison  said  they  did  not  come  together  to 
settle  the  question  of  marriage,  but  he  should  be 
sorry  to  rule  out  Mrs.  Stanton's  resolutions  and 
speeches.  Miss  Anthony  said :  "  I  hope  Mr. 
Phillips  will  withdraw  his  motion.  ...  I  totally 


304  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

dissent  from  the  idea  that  this  question  does  not 
belong  on  this  platform.  Marriage  has  ever  been 
a  one-sided  matter.  By  it,  man  gains  all,  woman 
loses  all.  Tyrant  law  and  lust  reign  supreme  with 
him  ;  meek  submission  and  ready  obedience  alone 
befit  her.  .  .  .  By  law,  public  sentiment,  and  relig- 
ion, from  the  time  of  Moses  down  to  the  present 
day,  woman  has  never  been  thought  of  other  than 
as  a  piece  of  property,  to  be  disposed  of  at  the  will 
and  pleasure  of  man.  .  .  .  She  must  accept  mar- 
riage as  man  proffers  it,  or  not  at  all." 

The  resolutions  were  carried  and  recorded,  and 
are  published  to  this  day,  with  added  testimony 
to  the  same  effect  from  a  hundred  Suffrage 
sources.  "We  turn  back  to  trace  one  of  the  lines 
through  which  this  teaching  has  come  down. 
The  Suffrage  leaders  mention  as  special  inspirers 
of  their  movement  besides  Ernestine  Rose  (who 
seconded  Mrs.  Stantons  resolutions)  and  Frances 
"Wright,  Margaret  Fuller  and  Mary  "Wollstone- 
craft.  In  the  writings  of  those  women  we  find  the 
same  sentiments  set  forth  with  delicacy  or  vul- 
garity, according  to  the  nature  of  the  writer.  Mar- 
garet Fuller,  in  her  Dial  essay,  published  in  1843, 
"  The  Great  Lawsuit  —  Man  Versus  "Woman, 
"Woman  Versus  Man,"  says  :  "  It  is  the  fault  of  mar- 
riage, and  of  the  present  relation  between  the  sexes, 
that  the  woman  belongs  to  the  man,  instead  of 
forming  a  whole  with  him.  It  is  a  vulgar  error 
to  suppose  that  love — a  love — is  to  woman  her 
whole  existence.  She  is  also  born  for  Truth  and 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  HOME.       305 

Love  in  their  universal  energy.  Would  she  but 
assume  her  inheritance,  Mary  would  not  be  the 
only  virgin  mother."  Mary  Wollstonecraft  be- 
lieved that  marriage  consisted  solely  of  mutual 
affection,  and  that  there  should  be  no  outward 
promise  or  tie  to  bind.  If  love  were  to  die,  the 
heart  should  seek  other  affinity.  The  licen- 
tious words  of  Frances  Wright  need  not  be  re- 
peated. With  Mephistophelian  promptings,  Ernes- 
tine Rose  stood  forever  a-tip-toe,  whispering  in 
the  ear  of  the  purer  American  feeling  that  would 
often  have  faltered.  At  the  time  of  the  passing 
of  Mrs.  Stanton's  resolutions  she  said :  "  But 
what  is  marriage  ?  A  human  institution,  called 
out  by  the  needs  of  the  social,  affectional  human 
nature  for  human  purposes.  ...  If  it  is  demon- 
strated that  the  real  objects  are  frustrated,  I 
ask,  in  the  name  of  individual  happiness  and 
social  morality  and  well-being,  why  should  such 
a  marriage  be  binding  for  life  ?  .  .  .  I  ask  that 
personal  cruelty  to  the  wife  may  be  made  a 
State's-prison  offence,  for  which  divorce  shall  be 
granted.  Wilful  desertion  for  one  year  should 
be  a  sufficient  cause  for  divorce.  .  .  .  Habitual 
intemperance,  or  any  other  vice  which  makes 
the  husband  or  wife  intolerable  and  abhorrent  to 
the  other,  ought  to  be  sufficient  cause  for  divorce." 
Essentially  the  same  idea  was  repeated  by 
Dr.  Hulda  Gunn  in  a  recent  Suffrage  meeting. 
In  asking  for  laws  that  carried  out  these  claims, 

or  some  of  them,  Mrs.  Stanton  said,  in  addressing 
20 


306  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

the  New  York  Legislature  in  1854  :  "  If  you  take 
the  highest  view  of  marriage  as  a  Divine  relation, 
which  love  alone  can  constitute  and  sanctify,  then 
of  course  human  legislation  can  only  recognize  it. 
.  .  .  But  if  you  regard  marriage  as  a  civil  con- 
tract, then  let  it  be  subject  to  the  same  laws  that 
control  all  other  contracts.  Do  not  make  it  a  kind 
of  half-human,  half-divine  institution,  which  you 
may  build  up  but  cannot  regulate." 

These  doctrines — from  those  of  Frances  "Wright 
to  those  of  Mrs.  Stanton  and  Miss  Anthony — were 
put  forth  in  the  name  of  social  purity  and  true 
marriage..  A  great  body  of  Suffragists  never 
have  accepted  them.  They  were  repugnant,  in 
this  form,  to  a  majority  who  were  demanding 
"  equal  rights."  In  January,  1871,  Mr.  Hooker 
(husband  of  Isabella  Beecher  Hooker),  said  in  the 
New  York  Evening  Post :  "  The  persons  who  ad- 
vocate easy  divorce  would  advocate  it  just  as 
strongly  if  there  was  no  Suffrage  movement. 
The  two  have  no  necessary  connection.  Indeed, 
one  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  favor  of  Woman 
Suffrage  is,  that  the  marriage  relation  will  be 
safer  with  women  to  vote  and  legislate  upon  it 
than  where  the  voting  and  legislation  are  left 
wholly  to  men.  Women  will  always  be  wives 
and  mothers,  above  all  things  else.  This  law  of 
nature  cannot  be  changed,  and  I  know  of  nobody 
who  desires  to  change  it."  As  he  had  just  been 
referring  to  "  persons  who  advocated  easy  di- 
vorce," and  who  originated  the  Suffrage  move- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  HOME.       307 

ment,  his  statement  that  he  knew  of  nobody  who 
desired  to  change  marriage  seems  funny. 

It  was  one  of  the  matters  remarked  upon  with 
satisfaction  by  Suffrage  leaders  during  our  Con- 
stitutional Convention  Suffrage  campaign,  that 
such  a  large  number  of  speakers  advocated  Suf- 
frage because  of  its  advantage  to  the  home.  Mrs. 
Cora  Seabury  said :  "  Where  woman  is,  homes 
naturally  exist,  and  not  without  her.  The  '  divine 
veracity  in  nature,'  which  in  her  case  has  sur- 
vived the  chaos  of  ages  and  the  varying  civil^za- 
tion  of  six  thousand  years,  is  not  now  to  be  dis- 
proved by  an  incident  comparatively  so  trivial  as 
that  of  taking  the  ballot."  Dr.  Jacobi  puts  the 
idea  in  this  way :  "  Mr.  Gold  win  Smith  declares 
that  woman  suffrage  aims  at  such  a  '  sexual  revo- 
lution '  as  must  cause  the  '  dissolution  of  the  fam- 
ily.' The  Suffrage  claim  does  not  aim  at  this ;  it 
seeks  only  to  formulate,  recognize,  and  define  the 
revolution  already  effected,  yet  which  leaves  the 
family  intact.  The  P atria  Potestas  is  gone.  A 
man  has  lost,  first,  the  right  to  kill  his  own  son, 
then  the  right  to  order  the  marriage  of  his 
daughter,  then  the  right  to  absorb  the  property 
of  his  wife.  Nevertheless,  he  survives,  and  the 
family,  shorn  of  its  portentous  rights,  bids  fair  in 
America  to  remain  the  happiest  of  all  conceivable 
natural  institutions  ;  more  profound  than  society, 
so  immeasurably  deeper  than  politics  that  the 
fortunate  wife,  daughter,  or  sister  is  puzzled  when 
the  two  are  mentioned  in  the  same  breath." 


308  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

All  these  writers  agree  in  demanding  the  ballot 
in  order  to  make  some  essential  change  in  wo- 
man's condition.  Some  of  them  hold  that  this 
change  cannot  be  made  unless  the  relations  of 
wife  and  mother  can  be  set  aside  when  the  indi- 
vidual considers  them  detrimental;  others  hold 
that  it  can  be  made  and  leave  the  relations  intact; 
and  one  believes  that  this  change  is  already  so 
far  made,  while  the  relations  are  still  intact,  that 
nothing  need  be  feared  from  further  change.  It 
reduces  itself  to  matter  of  opinion  and  prophecy 
on  the  part  of  those  who  agree  with  the  early 
leaders  that  essential  change  is  needed,  but  do 
not  agree  with  them  as  to  the  steps  necessary. 
The  appeal  must  be  to  facts. 

The  originators  of  the  movement  ought  to 
know  what  the  movement  meant.  The  marriage 
laws  were  the  first  attacked,  and  are  still  being 
hammered  at  in  favor  of  divorce,  although  legis- 
lation has  outrun  their  demand  in  changing  the 
outgrown  laws  in  regard  to  property  and  con- 
tracts. Mr.  Hooker  said :  "  The  persons  who 
advocate  easy  divorce  would  advocate  it  just  as 
strongly  if  there  was  no  Suffrage  movement." 
How  can  that  be,  when  the  women  who  inspired 
the  Suffrage  movement,  and  who  began  it  and 
still  carry  it  on,  proclaimed  this  as  a  necessary 
part  ?  But,  this  question  aside,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  marriage  relation  has  been  the  most  un- 
safe in  the  hands  of  the  women  whose  idea  of 
equality  either  repudiates  it  outright  or  inveighs 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  HOME.       309 

against  its  present  status.  From  the  revolution- 
ary and  infidel  portion  of  France,  from  which  it 
sprang,  to  the  recently  dead  Oneida  Community, 
who  but  women  who  imbibed  the  doctrine  that 
marriage  was  bondage,  have  sustained  the  various 
forms  of  license  which  called  itself  freedom? 
Transcendentalism  and  Libertinism  worked  to- 
gether, and  both  found  women  who  could  be 
fitted  to  the  task  of  destroying  the  home. 

Mrs.  Seabury  avers  that  where  Avoman  is,  homes 
will  naturally  exist.  Homes  have  not  existed 
"naturally."  There  was  a  long,  long  time  in 
human  history  when,  not  a  dream  of  a  home  ex- 
isted. From  lawless  individualism  to  tribal  life, 
from  tribe  to  clan,  from  the  clan,  at  last,  through 
mighty  struggles,  the  family  was  evolved — the 
final  grouping  of  the  race — the  social  unit.  That 
point  was  not  reached  until  man  the  savage,  man 
the  rover,  had  consented  to  be  bound,  and  bound 
for  life,  to  one  woman.  It  has  been  one  object 
of  Christian  civilization  to  hold  man  to  this  sav- 
ing compact.  First  to  hold  his  spirit  by  affection 
for  wife  and  child,  and  next  to  hold  his  material 
interests  for  the  sake  of  society.  The  work  has  so 
well  progressed  that  to-day  the  man's  family  is 
dearer  to  him  than  his  own  life.  He  will  live  for 
them,  and  fight  for  them ;  and  the  women  who 
proclaim  that  man  is  woman's  enemy,  are  the 
assassins  of  their  own  peace  and  of  the  growing 
peace  of  home. 

A  proof  that  "  women  will  not  always  be  wives 


310  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

and  mothers  above  all  things  else,"  is  to  be  found 
in  the  story  of  the  women  who  have  engaged  in 
intrigue  from  the  days  of  ancient  Egppt.  A 
woman  State  senator-elect  says:  "I  am  a  Mor- 
mon, and  believe  in  polygamy."  The  organi- 
zations that  are  first  to  proclaim  the  so-called 
freedom  of  woman  from  the  marriage  bond,  are 
the  same  that  would  repudiate  all  government, 
human  and  divine. 

But  man  has  no  more  set  the  founds  of  woman's 
life  than  woman  has  set  those  of  man's.  It  is 
false  to  say  that  man  has  "  usurped  the  preroga- 
tive of  Jehovah,"  in  assigning  her  a  sphere  of  ac- 
tion. He  has  assigned  neither  her  sphere  nor  his 
own.  Their  spheres  have  been  worked  out  from 
the  conditions  that  made  them  male  and  female. 
The  ideal  that  faith  could  picture  was  presented 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  when  Christ  said,  "  For 
the  hardness  of  your  hearts  Moses  commanded  to 
write  a  bill  of  divorcement,  but  in  the  beginning 
it  was  not  so,"  he  spoke  the  ultimate  word.  Save 
for  adultery,  the  family  was  not  to  be  broken, 
and  the  laws  of  modern  life,  which  grow  freer  in 
every  other  respect,  are  approaching  nearer  to 
this  model  as  society  progresses,  and  most  rapidly 
so  in  the  most  progressive  states. 

There  is  a  fine  bit  of  unconscious  humor  in  Miss 
Anthony's  remark  that  "  Woman  must  accept 
marriage  as  man  proffers  it,  or  not  at  all."  Man 
is  at  present  blinded  by  the  belief  that  he  must 
proffer  marriage  as  woman  will  accept  it,  or  not 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  HOME.       311 

at  all.  Society  has  lodged  with  her  what  Mrs. 
Stanton  calls  "  only  the  veto  power."  Miss  An- 
thony and  Mrs.  Stanton  apparently  wish  the 
women  to  do  the  proffering,  the  accepting,  and 
the  rejecting.  With  so  insignificant  a  part  as- 
signed him,  it  would  seem  a  pity  that  there  should 
be  a  sort  of  necessity  for  man  to  play  in  the  mar- 
riage role  at  all.  When  Suffrage  leaders  have  so 
arranged  matters  that  the  bride  retains  her  maiden 
name,  she  can  spend  her  summers  in  Europe  and 
her  winters  in  Florida,  while  her  husband  works 
all  the  year  round  in  New  York  to  support  her, 
without  her  being  subjected  to  the  mortification 
of  seeming  to  desert  the  man  whose  name  she 
bears. 

Tou  cannot  teach  this  untruth  to  the  girl  with- 
out teaching  it  to  the  boy.  The  struggle  of  civil- 
ization has  been  to  teach  that  manhood  was  not 
the  great  fact  of  man's  life,  and  he  has  learned  it 
through  the  chivalry  and  tenderness  that  appealed 
to  and  developed  his  higher  nature.  But  if  once  he 
understands  that  woman  does  not  hold  herself  in 
need  of  his  chivalry  and  tenderness,  the  husband- 
hood  and  fatherhood  that  now  bind  him  to  one 
sacred  vow  of  married  love,  and  tame  the  savage 
within  him,  will  not  long  prevent  him  from  see- 
ing his  own  advantage  in  the  new  order. 

Wifehood  and  motherhood '  incidental  relations.' 
They  are  incidental !  Incidental  not  only  to  the 
continuance  of  the  race  in  civilization,  but  to  all 
that  is  best  and  holiest  in  that  continuance.  The 


312  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

mothers  of  the  Kebellion  say  :  "  The  love  of  off- 
spring, common  to  all  orders  of  women  and  all 
forms  of  animal  life,  tender  and  beautiful  as  it  is, 
cannot  as  a  sentiment  rank  with  conjugal  love. 
The  one  calls  out  only  the  negative  virtues  that 
belong  to  the  apathetic  classes,  such  as  patience, 
endurance,  self-sacrifice,  exhausting  the  brain 
forces,  ever  giving,  asking  nothing  in  return  ;  the 
other,  the  outgrowth  of  the  two  supreme  powers 
in  nature,  the  positive  and  negative  magnetism, 
the  centrifugal  and  centripetal  forces,  the  mascu- 
line and  feminine  elements,  possessing  the  divine 
power  of  creation  in  the  universe  of  thought  and 
action.  Two  pure  souls  fused  into  one  by  an  im- 
passioned love.  This  is  marriage,  and  this  is  the 
only  corner-stone  of  an  enduring  home." 

The  "homes"  built  solely  upon  this  corner- 
stone have  not  endured  in  this  country.  The 
children  born  under  such  principles  are  taken  care 
of  by  the  "  Community  "  in  a  building  apart  from 
that  occupied  by  the  "  pure  souls."  The  "  institu- 
tional "  bringing  up  of  children  was  lately  advo- 
cated in  this  city  by  Mrs.  Stanton  Blatch  at  Suf- 
frage meetings. 

The  virtues  that  the  Suffrage  leaders  denounce 
as  "  apathetic  "  are  those  that  Christ  signalized  as 
the  heavenly  virtues,  and  are  those  which  heroes 
emulate,  whether  they  be  women  or  men. 

Dr.  Jacobi  says  the  Suffrage  movement,  "  aims 
only  to  regulate  and  define  the  revolution  already 
effected,  and  which  leaves  the  family  intact."  I 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  HOME.       313 

think  it  has  been  proven  from  words  and  acts 
that  it  does  aim  at  just  such  a  "  sexual  revolution  " 
as  threatens  the  family  with  dissolution.  It  aimed 
to  accomplish  this  by  every  means  in  its  power, 
by  an  industrialism  which  it  desired  should 
make  woman  independent  of  man,  by  divorce 
laws,  and  by  the  use  of  the  ballot.  Who  has 
shorn  man  of  all  his  portentous  rights?  Man 
himself,  through  the  influence  of  woman.  Is  it 
likely,  then,  that  he  was  takisg  steps  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  destruction  of  his  own  home  ?  He 
was  endeavoring  to  build  it  on  those  sure  founda- 
tions that  make  it  what  it  is.  He  can  build  if 
woman  occupies,  but  he  cannot  both  fight  for  the 
home  and  against  it.  Circumstances,  and  not 
Suffrage  cries,  have  forced  or  enticed  woman  into 
the  trades  and  professions.  She  has  gone  farther 
afield  for  her  work,  partly  because  the  ^Egis  of 
home  is  more  broadly  spread  than  it  formerly  could 
be  on  account  of  the  very  strength  of  the  marriage 
tie,  which  makes  honor,  home,  and  woman  more 
secure.  So  far  as  she  has  gone  to  help  the  home, 
and  because  of  love  of  it,  such  causes  have  not 
hurt  the  family  life,  and  will  not.  But  when  we 
come  to  Suffrage  we  have  met  a  different  matter. 
The  vote  is  not  an  affair  of  feeling  or  opinion, 
like  religious  belief.  The  fact  that  the  men  of  the 
family  are  the  natural  defenders  of  law,  and  the 
women  are  not,  is  seen  at  close  quarters  in  the 
home,  and  in  case  of  opposite  votes  and  any 
serious  resulting  action,  the  father  and  son  must 


314  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

stand  in  the  attitude  of  actual  physical  as  well  as 
political  antagonism  to  the  mother  and  daughter. 
If  it  came  to  an  issue,  man  would  have  to  decide 
whether  he  would  defend  his  own  opinion,  ex- 
pressed in  his  ballot,  or  the  opposite  opinion  ex- 
pressed by  his  wife  in  her  ballot.  And  the  mere 
suggestion  of  difference  in  family  opinion,  final 
action  upon  which  could  only  be  taken  by  a  resort 
to  that  in  which  the  men  must  always  be  superior, 
would  not  only  endanger  family  life  and  peace, 
but  would  develop  a  fatal  inequality  between  the 
sexes.  If  the  women  of  the  family  vote  with  the 
men,  they  only  double  the  vote  and  the  expense, 
without  changing  the  result ;  if  they  vote  against 
the  men,  they  stand  in  the  ridiculous  attitude  of 
opposing  them  where  they  cannot  do  more  than 
pull  hair,  or  inviting  a  revolution  which  they  can- 
not stay. 

As  to  the  possibility  of  this,  there  are  a  few 
striking  and  suggestive  facts  at  hand.  The  sound 
judgment  and  law-abiding  element  of  this  country 
expressed  itself  in  no  uncertain  tones  at  the  late 
election.  After  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Bryan,  he  was 
given  a  tremendous  demonstration  of  approval  at 
Denver,  in  which  the  women  played  a  conspicuous 
part.  Mrs.  Bradford  said :  "  The  women  tried 
to  welcome  you  to  the  White  House.  When  a 
few  more  stars  have  been  added  to  the  Equal 
Suffrage  banner,  the  women  will  welcome  you  to 
the  White  House."  Mrs.  Patterson,  President  of 
the  Equal  Suffrage  League,  said  in  seconding  the 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  HOME.       315 

address  of  welcome :  "  Women  of  Colorado,  I 
present  to  you  the  first  president  of  the  twentieth 
century — William  Jennings  Bryan."  An  invalid 
of  whom  I  know,  travelled  from  California  to 
her  home  in  Colorado  in  order  to  cast  her  vote  for 
Bryan,  while  her  husband  cast  his  for  McKinley 
in  California.  Mrs.  Cannon,  of  Utah,  was  elected 
on  the  Free-Silver  ticket,  against  her  husband  on 
the  Gold-Standard  ticket.  Mrs.  Cronine,  a  Pop- 
ulist member  of  the  legislature  of  Colorado,  is 
reported  as  saying :  "  It  hurt  my  husband,  a  life- 
long Eepublican,  to  see  me  vote  against  his  party 
and  carry  both  our  children  with  me."  Should 
there  be  political  disturbance  in  Colorado  and 
Utah,  in  1900,  here  are  three  husbands  on  record 
who  might  be  called  upon  by  the  United  States 
authorities  to'  put  down  by  force,  perhaps  to  kill, 
those  whose  lawlessness  their  wives  had  insti- 
gated and  abetted.  In  one  instance  the  man's 
own  sons  may  fight  against  him,  impelled  to  do 
so  by  the  lessons  taught  by  their  mother.  It  re- 
quires no  stretch  of  fancy  to  see  the  possibility 
of  civil  war  brought  to  the  doors  of  every  home, 
when  women  vote.  And  the  occasion  that  would 
bring  it  would  not  be  the  saving  of  the  Nation's 
life,  but  its  overthrow ;  not  freedom  for  an  op- 
pressed class,  but  mingled  bondage  and  license 
for  a  sex  now  free  ;  not  the  preservation  of  home, 
but  its  destruction.  The  Suffrage  women  who 
here  among  us  are  talking  so  foolishly  about  arbi- 
tration and  universal  peace,  seem  to  have  no  con- 


316  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

ception  that  with  their  next  breath  they  are  en- 
deavoring to  establish  the  conditions  for  the  most 
horrible  of  conflicts — that  of  Sex.  So  far  from 
the  "  taking  of  the  ballot  "  being  "  trivial,"  it  is 
the  most  serious  and  dangerous  business  in  which 
a  woman  can  engage. 

The  home  is  not  a  natural  institution  unless 
it  is  maintained  by  natural  means,  and  woman 
suffrage  and  the  home  are  incompatible.  John 
Bright,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Theodore  Stanton's  ques- 
tion why  he  opposed  suffrage,  said,  "  I  cannot 
give  you  all  the  reasons  for  the  view  I  take,  but 
I  act  from  the  belief  that  to  introduce  women 
into  the  strife  of  political  life  would  be  a  great  evil 
to  them,  and  that  to  our  own  sex  no  possible  good 
could  arise.  When  women  are  not  safe  under  the 
charge  or  care  of  fathers,  husbands,  brothers,  and 
sons,  it  is  the  fault  of  our  non-civilization,  and  not 
of  our  laws.  As  civilization  founded  on  Christian 
principles  advances,  women  will  gain  all  that  is 
right  for  them  to  have,  though  they  are  not  seen 
contending  in  the  strife  of  political  parties.  In 
my  experience  I  have  observed  evil  results  to 
many  women  who  have  entered  hotly  into  polit- 
ical conflict  and  discussion.  I  would  save  them 
from  it." 

How  true  this  is,  and  how  wise  are  the  fears 
expressed  by  Mr.  Bright,  we  realize  afresh  at 
every  study  of  the  exciting  campaign  of  Novem- 
ber, 1896.  The  "Woman's  Journal,  the  Suffrage 
organ,  published  a  letter  from  its  California  cor- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  HOME.       317 

respondent  descriptive  of  the  work  of  their  women 
in  watching  the  count  on  the  Suffrage  amendment. 
One  woman  who  felt  "  terribly  blue  "  says  that  a 
man  patted  her  on  the  shoulder  and  told  her  to 
keep  up  her  courage,  and  she  says  :  "  It  broke  me 
up,  I  can  tell  you,  for  I  never  could  stand  sympa- 
thy. If  people  Avill  let  me  alone,  I  can  grit  my 
teeth  and  stand  it,  but  when  they  say  kind  things 
to  me  I  go  to  pieces.  However,  as  I  was  bound  I 
would  not  show  those  men  how  badly  I  felt,  and 
give  them  a  chance  to  say  women  were  hysteri- 
cal, I  smiled  weakly — very  weakly,  I'm  afraid — 
but  still  it  was  a  smile  and  passed  as  such.  Then 
I  began  to  get  sick — ye  gods !  how  sick !  The 
excitement  in  the  booth  stopped,  but  there  was 
an  excitement  in  my  head  that  had  not  been  there 
before !  Everything  got  black  and  began  to  go 
round.  They  could  have  counted  us  out  a  dozen 
times,  and  I  should  never  have  known  the  differ- 
ence." Again  the  correspondent  says  :  "  Mrs.  "W. 
was  so  tired  that  she  broke  down."  "  Mrs. 
Babcock  waxed  eloquent,  and  had  the  meeting  in 
tears.  Miss  Shaw  said  she  wanted  to  speak  of  one 
who  had  been  forgotten,  because  she  came  here 
before  any  of  the  rest,  and  worked  so  hard  that 
she  had  ruined  her  health,  and  lay  pale  and  white 
on  her  couch  at  home.  She  stood  there,  and  the 
tears  rolled  down  her  cheeks,  and  she  didn't  try 
to  wipe  them  away.  Every  one  was  crying. 
Mrs.  Blinn  said,  '  I  cannot  speak.  I  feel  too  much 
to  say  anything,'  and  then  she  broke  down  and 


318  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

cried.  Mrs.  McCann  soon  had  everybody  crying 
about  Miss  Hay,  and  when  Miss  Hay  got  up  she 
was  crying  too.  So  we  had  a  very  weepy  morn- 
ing, you  see."  In  describing  the  departure  of 
Miss  Anthony  and  Rev.  Anna  Shaw  for  the  East 
she  says  :  "  Oh,  it  was  awful !  awful !  The  whole 
thing  was  like  a  funeral." 

With  the  steady  improvement  in  machinery  and 
in  education,  the  wife  and  mother  can  be  more 
and  more  relieved  of  work.  But  the  home 
depends  as  much  as  ever  upon  her  love,  her  skill, 
her  care.  She  now  has  means,  which  science  has 
just  taught  the  world,  of  learning  how  to  provide, 
on  proper  principles,  for  children,  how  to  dress 
sensibly,  cook  wholesomely,  make  the  home  sani- 
tary. Nursing  is  a  fine  art  now,  and  comforts 
can  be  placed  within  the  reach  of  every  invalid,  if 
the  mother  knows  how  to  do  it.  If  home  is  to 
be  hospitable,  and  a  centre  of  social  influence,  all 
the  artistic  and  homely  powers  are  demanded.  If 
the  family  is  to  be  well-dressed,  the  mother  must 
attend  to  it.  If  home  is  to  be  beautiful,  the 
mother  and  daughter  must  make  it  so.  In  these 
days,  there  is  little  need  of  slaving  ;  and  there  is 
a  glimpse  ahead  of  leisure  for  thought  and  self- 
culture  such  as  men  would  find  it  hard  to  make. 
The  long  and  enforced  retirement  of  maternity 
may  prove  a  time  for  most  valuable  improvement. 
In  our  social  life  there  is  too  little  culture  that  is 
the  result  of  absorption  by  a  quiet  process  of 
mental  assimilation.  The  place  where  this  can  be 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  AND   THE  HOME.       319 

best  achieved  is  in  the  home.  The  danger  of  our 
fascinating  modern  life,  with  its  endless  calls  and 
opportunities  outside,  lies  in  the  strain  it  puts 
upon  systems  that  are  far  more  delicately  or- 
ganized than  man's.  Nature  meant  that  women 
should  have  periods  of  quiet.  Let  us  honor  our 
own  natures,  exalt  our  own  opportunities,  love 
and  lead  our  own  lives,  and  so  bless  the  world  and 
the  Republic  through  perfected  homes. 

I  have  considered  this  question  mainly  from  the 
view-point  of  the  wife  and  mother  ;  but  the  home 
relations  are  vastly  broader.  In  regard  to  their 
whole  scope,  some  of  the  Suffrage  leaders  have 
uttered  this  dictum :  "  The  isolated  household  is 
responsible  for  a  large  share  of  woman's  ignor- 
ance and  degradation."  If  this  declaration  does 
not  mean  that  the  Suffrage  movement  aims  to 
tear  down  the  individual  home,  it  means  nothing. 
The  world  must  judge  which  system  is  responsible 
for  the  larger  share  of  woman's  ignorance  and 
degradation. 


CHAPTEK  XII. 

CONCLUSION. 

IN  the  opening  of  this  volume  I  have  given  it  as 
my  opinion  that  the  movement  to  obtain  the 
elective  franchise  for  woman  is  not  in  harmony 
with  those  through  which  woman  and  govern- 
ment have  made  progress.  I  have  spoken  of  the 
marvellous  forward  impulse  that  has  marked  the 
passage  of  the  last  half -century,  and  have  men- 
tioned the  growth  of  religious  liberty,  the  found- 
ing of  foreign  and  home  missions,  the  extinction 
of  slavery,  the  temperance  movement,  the  settle- 
ment of  the  West,  the  opening  of  the  professions 
and  trades  to  women,  the  progress  of  mechanical 
invention,  the  sudden  advance  of  science,  the  civil 
war,  and  the  natural  play  of  free  conditions,  as 
among  the  causes  of  this  impulse.  I  have  pointed 
out  the  fact  that  the  Suifrage  movement  has 
nearly  reached  its  semi-centennial  year,  and  has 
made  a  record  by  which  its  relation  to  these  pro- 
gressive forces  can  be  judged,  and  I  have  appealed 
from  the  repetition  of  its  claims  to  the  verdict  of 
its  accomplishment. 

In  the  second  chapter  I  have  considered  the 

320 


CONCLUSION.  821 

growth  of  republican  forms  the  world  over,  and 
endeavored  to  show  that  the  dogma  of  Woman 
Suffrage  is  fundamentally  at  war  with  true  demo- 
cratic principles,  and  that,  practically,  woman 
suffrage  has  been  allied  with  despotism,  mon- 
archy, and  ecclesiastical  oppression  on  the  one 
hand,  and  with  the  powers  of  license  and  misrule 
that  assail  republican  government  on  the  other. 

In  the  third  chapter  I  attempt  to  prove  this 
further  by  a  study  of  the  origin  of  the  Suffrage 
movement,  and  by  its  relation  to  the  Government 
of  the  United  States.  I  try  to  refute  the  two 
propositions  which  it  has  put  forth  as  solid  rest- 
ing-ground  for  woman's  claim  to  the  elective 
franchise  in  this  land — "  Taxation  without  repre- 
sentation is  tyranny,"  and  "  There  is  no  just 
government  without  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned." I  have  also  set  forth  the  difference  be- 
tween municipal  and  constitutional  suffrage,  and 
shown  that  the  extension  of  school  suffrage,  so  far 
from  being  a  stepping-stone  to  full  suffrage, 
affords  another  evidence  that  such  full  suffrage  is 
un progressive  and  undemocratic.  It  is  held  that 
regulated,  universal  manhood  suffrage  is  the 
natural  and  only  safe  basis  of  government. 

In  the  fourth  chapter  I  consider  the  early  rela- 
tion of  the  Suffrage  movement  to  the  causes  of 
anti-slavery  and  temperance.  I  also  discuss  the 
attitude  of  the  Suffrage  leaders  during  the  civil 


21 


322  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

war,  and  indicate  that  the  Suffrage  movement 
was  not  patriotic,  and  was  a  hindrance  to  emanci- 
pation and  reform. 

The  fifth  chapter  treats  of  the  connection  of  the 
Suffrage  movement  with  the  change  that  has 
taken  place  in  the  laws,  and  it  contains  a  synopsis 
of  the  present  laws  of  New  York  regarding 
women.  From  this  study  it  appears  that  the  Suf- 
frage movement  did  not  originate  the  change  in 
the  laws;  that  many  changes  most  vigorously 
urged  by  its  associations  never  have  been  en- 
acted ;  and  that  change  of  laws  has  not  been  so 
much  sought  as  a  voice  upon  change  of  laws — 
the  fact  being,  that  the  vote  per  se  has  been 
urged  as  the  panacea  for  all  woman's  wrongs. 

The  sixth  chapter  deals  with  Woman  Suffrage 
and  the  trades.  It  shows  that  this  movement  was 
not  instrumental  in  opening  the  trades  to  women  ; 
that  the  conditions  of  industrial  life  are  not 
changed  in  such  essentials  as  Avould  involve  a 
change  of  sex  relation  to  Government ;  and  that, 
so  far  from  altering  the  basis  of  government, 
industrialism  has  introduced  new  problems  of 
such  grave  import  that  security  in  the  enforce- 
ment of  law  is  doubly  necessary.  It  shows,  fur- 
thermore, that  socialistic  labor  has  been  naturally 
the  friend  of  Woman  Suffrage,  while  the  safer 
and  sounder  organizations  have  extended  sympa- 
thetic help  to  woman. 


CONCLUSION.  323 

The  seventh  chapter  discusses  the  connection  of 
Woman  Suffrage  with  the  professions.  It  aims  to 
show  that  here,  too,  suffrage  has  not  been  neces- 
sary to  gain,  for  women  who  were  fitted  to  hold 
it,  an  honorable  place ;  and,  in  regard  to  the 
places  they  have  not  yet  entered,  it  is  held  that 
the  impulse  must  come  from  within.  It  is  argued 
that,  in  the  professions,  as  in  the  trades,  Suffrage 
effort  has  hindered  more  than  it  has  helped,  and 
that  in  the  West  its  practical  working  is  the  most 
damaging  thing  that  has  attended  woman's  real 
progress. 

The  eighth  chapter  considers  the  connection 
of  Woman  Suffrage  with  education.  Its  conclu- 
sions are,  that  not  education,  but  coeducation, 
was  the  persistent  demand  of  Suffragists,  and 
that  woman's  advancement  in  college  and  uni- 
versity was  wrought  out  by  the  impulse  gained 
from  women  who  opposed  the  Suffrage  idea,  and 
made  practical  by  men  to  whom  also  that  idea 
was  repugnant.  It  is  suggested  that  women  who 
could  prepare  and  defend  the  ignorant  Suffrage 
Woman's  Bible  have  no  right  to  utter  a  syllable 
in  protest  of  the  educational  ideas  of  men  and 
women  who  are  competent  to  speak  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  whose  verdict  has  been,  on  the  whole, 
for  separate  study  during  collegiate  age,  wher- 
ever such  could  be  afforded,  while  it  is  not  dis- 
puted that  coeducation  has  its  place  and  its 
uses. 


824  OMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

The  ninth  chapter  presents  Woman  Suffrage  in 
its  relation  to  the  church.  It  first  discusses, 
briefly,  a  few  points  in  the  Suffrage  "Woman's 
Bible,  published  in  New  York  in  1895.  This  is  a 
commentary  on  such  passages  in  the  Pentateuch 
as  relate  to  women,  and  the  title  "  Rev."  is  pre- 
fixed to  four  names  of  editors  on  its  title-page. 
This  book,  or  rather  a  book  of  which  this  is  the 
first  instalment,  was  promised  by  Suffrage  writ- 
ers and  speakers  from  the  beginning.  It  is  con- 
sidered to  contain  the  consummate  blossom  of  the 
mind  that  first  expounded  the  Suffrage  theory— 
the  mind  that  grasped  it  as  a  whole,  in  its  full 
meaning  and  intent,  and  never  has  wavered  in 
expression  as  to  its  ultimate  object  and  the  means 
by  which  that  object  is  to  be  sought.  This  chap- 
ter sets  forth,  in  few  words,  the  present  writer's 
view  of  woman  in  the  creation,  and  of  St.  Paul's 
attitude  toward  woman.  The  chapter  further 
discusses  woman's  early  preaching  in  this  country, 
and  shows  that  it  has  not  been  such  as  to  build 
up  religion  or  the  state,  but  has  been  such  as  to 
suggest  that,  while  the  possibilities  of  her  nature 
tend  to  make  her  supreme  in  capacity  to  point 
the  way  to  higher  regions,  it  also  contains  quali- 
ties that  may  render  her  peculiarly  dangerous  as 
a  public  leader. 

The  tenth  chapter,  entitled  "  Woman  Suffrage 
and  Sex,"  alludes  briefly  to  the  social  evil,  and 
then  discusses  the  Suffrage  ideas  in  regard  to  sex 


CONCLUSION.  325 

as  explained  by  both  their  older  and  more  recent 
writers.  It  discusses  the  disabilities  of  sex  in 
relation  to  the  suffrage — the  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  jury  duty,  police  duty,  and  office-holding 
— and  draws  the  conclusion  that  the  fulfilment 
of  such  necessary  work  of  the  voting  citizen  is 
practically  an  impossibility  for  woman,  and  has 
been  found  to  be  so  in  the  Western  States. 

The  eleventh  chapter  has  for  its  title  "  Woman 
Suffrage  and  the  Home."  It  sets  forth  the  belief 
that  the  Suffrage  movement  strikes  a  blow 
squarely  at  the  home  and  the  marriage  relation, 
and  that  the  ballot  is  demanded  by  its  most  rep- 
resentative leaders  for  the  purpose  of  making 
woman  independent  of  the  present  social  order. 
It  argues  that  communism  is  the  natural  ally  of  Suf- 
frage, and  that,  as  homes  did  not  spring  out  of 
,  the  ground,  they  will  not  remain  where  men  and 
women  alter  the  mutual  relations  out  of  which 
the  institution  of  home  has  slowly  grown. 

The  general  conclusion  of  the  book  is,  that 
woman's  relation  to  the  Republic  is  as  important 
as  man's.  Woman  deals  with  the  beginnings  of 
life;  man,  with  the  product  made  from  those 
beginnings ;  and  this  fact  marks  the  difference  in 
their  spheres,  and  reveals  woman's  immense  ad- 
vantage in  moral  opportunity.  It  also  suggests 
the  incalculable  loss  in  case  her  work  is  not  done 
or  ill  done.  In  a  ruder  age  the  evident  value  of 


3-26  WOMAN  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

power  that  could  deal  with  developed  force  was 
most  appreciated ;  but  such  is  not  now  the  case. 
It  lies  with  us  to  prove  that  education,  instead  of 
causing  us  to  attempt  work  that  belongs  even 
less  to  the  cultivated  woman  than  to  the  ignorant, 
is  fitting  us  to  train  up  statesmen  who  will  be  the 
first  to  do  us  honor.  The  American  Republic 
depends  finally  for  its  existence  and  its  greatness 
upon  the  virtue  and  ability  of  American  woman- 
hood. If  our  ideals  are  mistaken  or  unworthy, 
then  there  will  be  ultimately  no  republic  for  men 
to  govern  or  defend.  When  women  are  Bud- 
dhists, the  men  build  up  an  empire  of  India.  When 
women  are  Mohammedans,  the  men  construct  an 
Empire  of  Turkey.  When  women  are  Christians, 
men  can  conceive  and  bring  into  being  a  Republic 
like  the  United  States.  Woman  is  to  implant  the 
faith,  man  is  to  cause  the  Nation's  faith  to  show 
itself  in  works.  More  and  more  these  duties 
overlap,  but  they  cannot  become  interchangeable 
while  sex  continues  to  divide  the  race  into  the 
two  halves  of  what  should  become  a  perfect  whole. 
Woman  Suffrage  aims  to  sweep  away  this  nat- 
ural distinction,  and  make  humanity  a  mass  of 
individuals  with  an  indiscriminate  sphere.  The 
attack  is  now  bold  and  now  subtle,  now  malicious 
and  now  mistaken  ;  but  it  is  at  all  times  an  attack. 
The  greatest  danger  with  which  this  land  is 
threatened  comes  from  the  ignorant  and  persist- 
ent zeal  of  some  of  its  women.  They  abuse  the 
freedom  under  which  they  live,  and  to  gain  an 


CONCLUSION.  327 

impossible  power  would  fain  destroy  the  Govern- 
ment that  alone  can  protect  them.  The  majority 
of  women  have  no  sympathy  with  this  movement ; 
and  in  their  enlightenment,  and  in  the  consistent 
wisdom  of  our  men,  lies  our  hope  of  defeating  this 
unpatriotic,  unintelligent,  and  unjustifiable  assault 
upon  the  integrity  of  the  American  Republic. 

NEW  YORK,  March,  1897. 


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